Moving out of my house for the first time brought upon a whole list of concerns, but one worry I did not expect to have was countless nights spent sleep deprived listening to multiple people being obnoxiously loud in the common area below my dorm room window known as the Oct.  I expected to deal with the normal problems of dorm life, but the noise coming from the Oct came as a complete surprise.

Late at night music can be heard blaring in the Oct, and if you look out any of the windows facing the Oct, there are numerous people dancing and laughing in groups.  These occurrences happen any day at any time, but they are most prevalent during the dorm quiet hours from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. when most students are trying to sleep or study.

Some nights the noise level can be so loud that it disturbs students from their sleep.  A few students in the dorms have been so irritated from the noise level that they have called campus police to complain about the volume.  Even after calling campus police, the students still return to the Oct with the same noise level night after night.

However, upon discussing the late-night socializing with the students who spend time in the Oct, I see that the Oct is a place where people make new friends, relieve stress, and enjoy college.  Most of the people who hang out there see the Oct as a place of hospitality and friendship.  Many people use the Oct as a general meeting place when waiting on a group of people to go somewhere.  These students use this hangout place to make the fun memories of college we all want to have when we look back on our time here.

After contemplating the activities, I have mixed emotions about the Oct itself.  Although over the course of the school year the Oct has gained more popularity and more people enjoy it, there is a limit to how loud activities in the Oct should be.  When the noise level reaches the point that the students sleeping in the dorms cannot get the rest they need for class, it becomes a problem and something needs to be changed.

Overall, college is about studying hard but also making great memories with lifelong friends.  I completely believe that this is what the students hanging out in the Oct are doing, but I would thoroughly respect it if they could be just a bit quieter while I am trying to sleep.