Last year, the thought of living up on York Hill seemed like a miserable experience. I would hear people walking down the hall or in the café complaining about how horrible it was to wait for the shuttle or drive down and park far away.

It seemed like most sophomores dreaded living up on York. When I asked people who lived there already what they thought about it, I always got those “eh it’s okay” responses. Every once in a while someone would say they liked it or that you would grow to like it.

From all these negative comments I felt like all I wanted to do was find a way to live on Mount Carmel for four years. But I didn’t want to be an RA, so I accepted the unfortunate reality of moving up to York.

So that was why I was surprised when I moved in and realized it wasn’t that bad. It was actually pretty nice. I mean you can’t beat the view and the rooms are so new. Although the common rooms are a little smaller than most of the sophomore residence halls, there are kitchens in all the rooms and two bathrooms. That’s more than most of us got on main.

Also, most of the juniors are all connected in the same building, so if you want to visit your friend in a different room you don’t have to put on a winter coat and boots and go out in the snow just to visit.

The Rocky Top Student Center is usually very quiet and peaceful to go and study if your room gets too loud or you need a different atmosphere. There are also study rooms, scattered all throughout Crescent, which most of the sophomore residence halls also did not have.

And for people who have cars there is a parking garage. This means everyone, not just the lucky students, can park on the same campus they live on. You don’t have to take a shuttle to get to your car (ugh Westwoods, the struggle).

Although in a few weeks when the temperature drops and I’m freezing at the shuttle stop, I might regret raving how nice York Hill is. But for now all I have are positive things to say about it. I do, however, miss being able to wake up 10 minutes before class and still make it on time. Within the first week of class I learned how much time I needed to give myself to get to class. Living on York just requires a little more planning, which when you think about it when you get a real job (yikes) you will have to be able to do anyway.