Note: This is part of our SATIRE edition.

Laundry day on campus can challenge your patience with a rowdy combination of pleasant odors, unfortunate timing and poor judgment, all taking place in a room brightly lit by fluorescent lights that seem to have been installed just to test you.

You come with a basket of clothes, determined to get things done, only to discover that every washer and dryer is occupied. Every. Single. One. The whole place looks like a rotating metal zoo, and you are the newest attraction. You nervously walk back and forth, trying to find a free machine, but in vain. Some machines are loaded with clothes that have been there longer than they should be.

The dryers are just as bad. You circle back time and time again to find the same clothes sitting in the same machine hours later.

At last, you hear the sweet sound of a machine being opened as someone takes out their clothes. You quickly put your clothes in, press the start button and take a deep sigh of relief. You check the Speed Queen app to find out how much time is left. It confidently tells you 12 minutes. You come back 15 minutes later. Still 12 minutes. The universe laughs. You check the app every time knowing it lies. Every. Time.

Then, the real amusement starts. If you do not remove your clothes from the washer or dryer on time, your laundry might end up on top of a machine or worse, on the floor. Yes, your socks, your T-shirts and your fresh smelling hoodie, they are now lying on the floor as if they have been the casualties of a small, ridiculous war. Some clothes are clean, some are dirty and all of them are sad.

When a dryer is finally free, you quickly put in your clothes, praying to the laundry gods. You go out to do some work, completely trusting the machine that a turning drum provides. When you come back, it is too late. Once again someone has thrown the clothes on the floor. Your lovely T-shirt is under a heap of other people’s socks and your hoodie got a little damp from the wet towel tossed on top of it.

Eventually, you come to the realization that the laundry room doesn’t only wash clothes, it also challenges bravery, patience and one’s ability to handle mild domestic disorder without screaming.

At last, after hours of evading floor piles, spin cycles and unreliable apps, your clothes are folded and back in your basket. Socks are mostly matched. T-shirts are sort of folded. Your hoodie may have shrunk, but you made it through another laundry hell. You lug your basket back to your dorm, feeling worn out, victorious and a bit traumatized.

Campus laundry days are a battle. Machines are continually on, clothes are all over the floor, timers give false information and socks disappear without a trace. Nevertheless, week after week, students come back, baskets in hand, ready to face it again, one missing sock at a time.