Woot woot! Simmons is now 20 years old! To celebrate this joyous event, here are 20 things that I’m grateful for in my dorm.

1. I live there

Can’t say I’m not grateful for that. Moving on…

2. The bathrooms

My entire dorm research process summed up in two sentences:

I then started my first year at MIT thinking that iHouse⁠01 Actually international development house was a dorm that was really into Apple products. Simmons does have the best bathrooms, though, so I guess it all worked out well in the end.

3. Kaito

The heads of house’s dog. Just look at him – isn’t he so cute?

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4. Chalk art

Although we can’t paint on the walls, we can use chalk to create ephemeral artworks throughout the hallways. Here are some gems from the 6th floor:

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I even drew a giant pigeon mural in my room!

5. The windows

They say that Simmons residents have more windows than friends, but my windows – all nine of them this year – are my friends. Opening their curtains every morning fills me with a sense of accomplishment that words cannot describe.

6. Modular furniture

Each piece of Simmons furniture is designed to fit perfectly with the others, allowing us to create countless different room layouts. My friends have spent hours playing around with arrangements to maximize free space.

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7. The terraces

The epic views and cold winter air are just what I need when I take a break from my 6.046⁠02 Design and analysis of algorithms psets.

This is an old image I just found online but you get the idea

8. The 4AB lounge

Having a lounge space to hang out with friends is integral to my Simmons social life. I like how I could live on a different floor – or even a different dorm – and still go to the lounge and fit in.

9. 🅰️levator⁠03 We have three elevators because Simmons has three 'towers' that are disjoint from the 8th to 10th floors, as well as a few other floors

This is a controversial opinion among Simmons residents, but we all know that 🅰️levator is far superior to 🅱️elevator and Celevator. Celevator is so lame that it doesn’t even get an emoji.

I was a 🅱️elevator 🅱️itch last year until it broke down for a whole week, and I had to climb up 10 flights of stairs every day. Meanwhile, 🅰️levator never breaks down and is always there for you when you need it.

(The one downside to 🅰️levator is that we’re not allowed to get out of it on the first floor.)

10. The basement (and MPR)

Even though 🅰️levator doesn’t go directly to the first floor, it does lead to the basement and multi-purpose room (MPR), which then lead to the first floor via stairs. It’s like having a personal highway from my room to the front door!

Bonus speed from doing this route with rollerblades.

The MPR is the only air-conditioned room in Simmons – a great place to be at the start of the fall semester. It also has seats that form a smiley face when viewed from below:

11. Its… unique architecture

A perk of living in such a funky-looking dorm is that I can always find my way back to it by looking at the skyline.

12. The parkour wall

A consequence of Simmons’ architecture is a special curvy wall on the 7th floor that curves at just the right angle and allows me to defy gravity.

13. The Simmons DB

It’s old and written in PHP and crashes more often than I’d like to admit, but it still gets the job done. All efforts to replace it thus far have been thwarted – a testament to its power.

Now with email notifications! (Thanks, Jordan ‘23.)

14. Simdin

Hot take – I like eating dining hall food. Shoutout to Kem for always making the best omelettes and Thupten for running the stir-fry station like a pro.

15. My GRAs⁠04 Graduate resident advisor

This isn’t unique to Simmons, but that doesn’t stop me from being grateful for them anyway. Shoutout to Hope and Elizabeth for all the study breaks and free food!

Popcorn study break this week, featuring 6th-floor GRA Thomas.

16. Rubber ducks

They’re not pigeons, but they’re still cute. And they’re everywhere.

Everywhere.

17. House meetings

It’s a great way to interact with the house government and vote on ad-hoc events to allocate house funds toward. The meme raffle at the end is also quite fun, although I am yet to win anything from it.

18. That one scene in Black Panther 2 where Shuri walked through a blank hallway and everyone watching in 26-100⁠05 The big lecture hall where LSC screens movies clapped

Truly a monument of modern cinema. (My friends strong-armed me into including something about the film in this post.)

19. Gymmons⁠06 Simmons + gym = gymmons , the library, and other facilities

It’s always nice to have facilities easily accessible in my living space, especially when it’s snowing or raining outside.

20. The 4AB lounge again

The 4AB lounge is not just a physical space – it’s also a “social lounge” on the Simmons DB. As a result, we get $30 per member per semester to spend on whatever we want – all funded by Simmons house funds, of course.