By Maggie Malone

It had to be a Monday, of course.

Last week, I arrived in my dorm after lunch to an email written in red. My eyes glossed over the words, heart pounding faster as I read. The room next to mine had bedbugs, the email said. Because of that, my roommate and I had to pack up everything outside of my closets and drawers, and evacuate for 24 hours, as our room was to be sprayed with heavy pesticides.

My residential director was waiting for me outside. After prepping me on room cleaning, my CL (that’s what we call RAs here) and I went to work. I had to skip a class and work to get everything done, and even worse, I had a test the next afternoon that I hadn’t even started studying for.

Luckily, there were no bedbugs in my room, but unluckily, the test scores weren’t that great. My roommate and I were camping out on the floor because of the chemical residue left by the pesticides. We were exhausted and frazzled. It was a rough week.

But you know what? So much good came out of it. After we cleaned, our room was more organized than it was before, our sheets and carpets were clean, and my desk was cleared from all the junk that previously resided on its surface.

The staff at Baylor was extremely nice and helpful. They supplied all the trash bags and gloves we needed, and made sure we were set for the night. The fact that they addressed the bedbug problem very quickly was also a blessing. As for the neighbors who had the bedbugs? Baylor washed all their clothes and put them up in a local hotel, with no extra cost for them.

Bedbugs are rather uncommon (so don’t worry about them, incoming freshmen!), and even when the chips were down, the awesome community at Baylor had my back, and I was able to overcome the worst week ever.

Our room after two hours of packing.