Debunking...

by Cara Marr

While it may seem a trivial matter at first glance, the decision of whether to have bunk beds in a double or to split them into two twin beds has the power to make or break a friendship. Perhaps I exaggerate, but nevertheless, many Yalies who have to share doubles face this issue at the beginning of the school year.

As a person who has had the good fortune to never have used a bunk bed for more than a week, I firmly side with debunking. Forget the argument that bunking provides more space in the bedroom; that's what common rooms are for. The bedroom is a place to sleep, and sleep comes easier when there is no danger of either someone crashing down on you in the middle of the night or you rolling to the side and falling down toward the cold floor. Yalies have enough hanging over their heads without having a bunk bed above them to worry about.

The dangers of the bunk bed don't end with fears of falling (whether it be upon someone, or just down). I personally think that the bottom bunk is better, but even on bottom, you risk sitting up and bashing your head against the cold metal of the bed above you. And if you have the misfortune of being on the top, while you don't have anything above you, you do have to make a climb every time you want to go to sleep. There's also the property that heat rises. My current suitemate spent last night trying to decide which was worse: the noise of skaters outside her open window or the sweltering heat which gathered after she closed it. Guess what folks: I slept in quiet comfort even with my window closed.

Freshman year I had a bedroom the size of a closet. I'd visit my friends in their rooms, great big cavernous doubles--without even a second thought of bunk beds!--or nice private singles. I'd return to my tiny little double, and the only thing that consoled me was that I, unlike the other people living in Vanderbilt, had enough space in my bedroom to debunk the beds. Granted, we couldn't completely close the closet door or completely open the bedroom door, but I think that that was a small price to pay for the luxury of a twin bed, gloriously separate from the other part of the bunk.

The argument for debunking was best put by my friend. Faced with a bunk for the first time in 18 years of life, she said: "We have bunk beds. I have the top. I suppose it's not too bad. I get to live out every five year old's fantasy...13 years too late."

Cara Marr is a sophomore in Davenport.

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