I don't know what it is about the University atmosphere that promotes a lack of sanitation, but it's as if once we got into college, we suddenly lost all concept of adequate personal hygiene.
We inherently know we're not being as clean as we should be, yet somehow we neglect cleanliness anyway. I think in some ways it stems from a lack of money. Correction: a disinterest in using our money for things other than recreation.
If you think about it, this could be a plausible explanation. Say, for instance, you're living in a house which already has extortion-like rent and you have to pay for utilities as well. If you cut down on the number of showers you take and decrease the frequency with which you do laundry, you're saving water and, in turn, money! In dorms and a lot of apartment complexes, you have to pay to do your laundry. Are you kidding me? The Castle versus my laundry -- ain't no question; I don't care if it is on Cav Advantage.
So, self-sacrificing and becoming the smelly kid in class that isn't wearing socks or underwear is worth the money you can spend on other more important things (read: bars or food) and not water. You save money on shampoo, soap and laundry detergent as well. Ingenious.
Also, our stuff in college gets dirtier than it would in real-world homes because we're always throwing parties or having 27 of our closest friends over to watch the O.C., and we don't have time to clean up. Things that get grimy and nasty stay that way because we don't really have the money to replace them (e.g. dishes).
True story: A good friend of mine invested in a very lovely, very fashionable (ha) shag rug for his room. Well, he's had it for awhile now, and the shag has become a catchall for everything from Chinese food to Jell-o shots. I bet if we picked apart the shag we could find Jimmy Hoffa's body. Needless to say, he really needs a new rug, but because he's got no moola, the dirty shag carpet stays and will probably even make it to his next room. At this point, it's become a mascot, and cleaning it would be a tragedy.
Also factoring into the hygiene/cleanliness issues are our living situations. I didn't feel inspired to take showers often in dorms because wearing flip-flops in the shower was such an unappealing prospect. Not to mention that one time we found a used condom in the drain, thus revealing the defilement of the one sacred clean space in dorms. Plus, you can always end up with a filthy roommate who ends up influencing you to be just as gross as she is, since there's no point keeping your side of the room clean.
Unless you live in one of the newer houses or apartment complexes around here, chances are you live in a dingy, semi-condemned building with landlords who don't really give a rat's ass about anything but your money. Speaking of rats, when you know you have vermin living in your walls, you don't feel compelled to keep your pad that clean. What difference does it make anyway? You've got rats running through the walls; might as well leave food on the floor for them to eat.
But it's not just a lack of motivation to clean, a lack of money, or foul housing that keeps us dirty -- we're actually dirty ourselves. Our bodies, not just our sheets, towels and underwear, tend to become filthy in college.
Our social lives force our hygiene into the backseat, and if we're not getting ready to go out, be it on a date, an important interview or just to hit up the Corner, you're most likely going to find a lot of people here at this university simply throwing on a T-shirt and some jeans or sweats sans shower.
We can't be as clean as we used to be because we've got a different set of priorities. We figure if we don't shower before class, that's more time to sleep; if we forget to brush our teeth sometimes, it's probably okay because you can always mooch gum off someone; and you don't always have to look great because most of the university has seen you with the flu, at the library at 4 a.m. during finals or after a long night of being out.
So, cheers to still finding boyfriends/girlfriends while smelling like stale beer and pizza, cheers to buying new plates because the food is fossilized on the old ones, cheers to sleeping on your mattress pad because you're too lazy to change your sheets and, most of all, cheers to college because we can get away with it!
Lindsay can be reached at mccook@cavalierdaily.com.
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