Editor’s Note: This is a reporter’s commentary on life in the dorm.

No, we cannot all “just get along.”

Some of us are just too loud, too stinky, too brash or too lazy. There are those among us who feel the need to listen to Slayer at 2 in the morning on full-blast or those who feel the drinking fountain is an acceptable place to dump Ramen noodles.

The differences between us can be inane and trivial or absolutely agonizing and maddening, and living in such close proximity to so many new and bizarre creatures in your dorm might only worsen things.

Trust me – your floormates are omnipresent and unavoidable, even after you decide to never leave your room again.

But as poet Audre Lorde once said, “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept and celebrate those differences.”

Despite your floormates’ penchant for ripping the doors off bathroom stalls and despite anything else they might do to offend or disgust you, there’s always a peaceful, rational solution to the tensions that inevitably arise in dorm life.

And if anyone is capable of diffusing these tense situations, it’s the resident advisor on your floor.

The most popular disturbance in every hall is surely outrageously loud music being blasted from behind an open door. This can interrupt other students’ sleeping schedules and study habits, plus it’s just not necessary to listen to anything that loud.

Speaking from personal experience, the best way to deal with this problem is playing something more annoying on your own stereo at a higher volume than your floormate. The Spice Girls or “Weird Al” Yankovic work best. They should, at the very least, prompt the guilty party to shut their door.

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www.bgnews.com.