Sex in University

One thing about our dorm would surprise people who are just coming in now in the middle of the year (parents are not to read this section because they may be shocked): Sex happens all the time, all over. I have witnessed so many sexual activities I'm not a part of because I walk in on them in the dorm rooms, or in the washroom, or in the laundry. Most of the time, people are drunk, but not always. It can be very awkward.

My first term here, I was continuing a long distance relationship with someone I knew from High School, so whenever we got together here, I had to arrange it with my roommate: well this person is going to be staying in the room here, and of course you can stay with us because it's your room as well but ... . It was all about organizing things in advance, which might sometimes be awkward if you have the wrong roommate. But you are thrown into this open environment, so you kind of become immune to it.

In High School, if someone heard you had sex with someone, you would think the world was ending. If one person knew, then everyone knew. Then your mom knew. In a small town when everyone knew, then you would be a bad person. So everyone was thinking of that, and not as much happened. But here it becomes like breathing, especially in the dorms. You can hear when someone above you or below you is doing something. Or in the room next to yours; I am good friends with my neighbors so we would just laugh at each other and pound the floor or the wall or the ceiling.

Another thing that happens here is that you meet someone at a party that you didn’t know, have sex with them, but then the next week you realize they are in your class. It happens because our classes are so big. So you pretend you don't know it was them. Or that your phone is ringing or you are getting a really important text. You know you had sex with that person; you just go with it and it never gets talked about. No-one knows. It's beautiful.