At the end of a long day, most of us want nothing more than to take a nice, long, hot shower and get ready for bed. Personally, I always look forward to this part of my day, until I remember the awkward discomfort I experience in dorm showers. Shower struggles have usually occurred on rare occasions, such as when I went to a camp or visited another country. But now, shower struggles are something I get to look forward to every night for the rest of the school year.  

Not to exaggerate, but the showers here in Simmons Hall are practically half the size of my shower back home and are about a foot shorter than my high, specially installed showerhead back in Virginia. Obviously, I didn’t expect the showers to be the same size, but I also did not expect the showerhead to only be high enough to reach my armpits. This usually results in an awkward squat-like stance in order for the shower water to reach my neck and shoulders. If that’s hard to envision, I usually end up looking something like this, or at least it feels this way: 

(Image via Cosmopolitan)

Since I, very evidently, will not have the privilege of a personalized shower head here, I had to find a way to make it work. one way or another. Since my first week, I have learned to improvise and find a more comfortable way to wash my excessively long legs that I talked about in my prior blog. Luckily for me, some of the showers in Simmons have small benches outside of the physical shower but still inside of the individual shower stall. The setup looks like this:

(Image via Madison Burnard)

Fortunately, if I open the shower curtain, I can extend each leg onto the bench while washing up and be a bit more comfortable than trying to do all that in the tiny shower vicinity. The only down part of THAT is that it requires me to have the shower curtain open, so in addition to water practically flooding the floor, it’s even more awkward than the awkward squat-stance. Why, you ask? Because, the shower stall doors are also short, and I am just the opposite. Therefore, on multiple occasions, I have made eye contact with people walking past the stall which ultimately results in an awkward exchange like below.

(Image via Tenor)

As far as I’m concerned, the showers aren’t getting any bigger and I’m not getting any shorter. However, considering that it is only the fifth week of school, I’m sure I have A LOT more adjusting to do and I’m sure I will continue to find new, innovative ideas to continually make showering less of a tragic hassle than it is now. Although I will probably continue to make a lot of uncomfortable eye contact with others as I shower, I’ll just look on the bright side. Maybe I’ll make some friends! Just kidding.  

Yes, the showers are gross and yes, wearing shoes in the shower SUCKS, but it could be worse (you could be me)! But really, NEVER take the comfort of showering for granted. EVER.

Thanks for tuning in!

Madison