When I first toured WKU, the tour guide pointed to the massive tower at the end of campus and said, “That’s Pearce Ford Tower. You do not want to live there. It’s 27 floors of freshmen girls. Tons of drama there.”

On every single campus tour I took, people talked about how awful it was to live in PFT. When room assignments first came out over the summer, my roommate texted me the message I’d been dreading.

“Roommate assignment is out,” she said. “We got Pearce Ford Tower.”

My heart sunk. It was what my roommate and I had always feared and it was becoming a reality.

“What floor?” I texted her back.

I thought it couldn’t get any worse. She responded, “23.”

I had already gone through all five stages of grief between the few remaining weeks of the summer and move-in day.  The tour guide’s words of “You do not want to live there,” still echoed in my head.

Move-in day came and I was determined to go into my living situation with a clear and open mind. Despite the chaos of move-in day, I was able to haul all of my things up 23 floors with no trouble at all.

Despite all of the dread and drama that led up to moving in, I have very few complaints as a PFT resident.

Everything about PFT that seems unappealing on paper isn’t that terrible in practice. The elevator moves relatively quickly. There have been a few busy mornings where the elevator stopped on every single floor on the way down, but I have never been inconvenienced more than five minutes because of it.

Sure, it does seem a little cramped. You have to be comfortable getting pretty close to complete strangers during elevator rides.

When I first moved in, the bathroom situation was completely appalling to me. Yes, public restrooms are gross in general, but I was mainly concerned with the fact that there were only five showers and roughly 40 girls on my floor. Despite this, I’ve never had to wait in line for a shower.

I’m not a fan of forced socialization like “family floor meetings” or building-wide group chats, but what I enjoy most about PFT is the sense of community I feel with the residents. There’s a general understanding that we’re all suffering together. None of us may have chosen to live here, but we all are.

Whenever annoying things happen, like a small kitchen fire forcing us outside for three hours or 5 a.m. fire drills, we often complain together. These inconveniences have served as ice breakers with girls in my classes who I’d never talked to before. Often this would lead to, “What floor are you on?” or “How’s your RA?” I’ve even established connections with people who I just see around the building. Sometimes it’s “I’ve seen you in the elevator before!”

All of this being said, PFT is no worse than any other underclassmen dorm. The girls are friendly and it definitely has one of the best views in the city of Bowling Green.

Features reporter Laurel Deppen can be reached at 270-745-6291 and [email protected].