This grand university of higher learning, as well as the activities and services that are provided on this campus, can often be taken for granted by students. Carolina Dining Services is one such University service that gets vastly overlooked. Ambitiously striving to be identified as one of the premier collegiate dining programs in the nation, this service caters a wide array of food selections to a diversified student body.
Rams Head Dining Hall, which is located near the South Campus residences, is my favorite dining hall on campus. Even though the Top of Lenoir is a featured food spot for lunch, Rams Head just has a more relaxing, cozy and homelike environment in comparison. Whether you need a quick snack for convenience or a full-scale buffet to suffice your appetite, this dining hall is quite the advantageous utopia if you ask me.
Accompanying the Rams Head Center and connected to the Rams Head Plaza, this dining hall has many benefits, including a short commute for South Campus residents, wide-open seating for places to hangout and late night dining options if one needs to stay awake while studying for exams or writing papers.
Rams Head is a popular location for first-years and, as the majority of sophomores and freshmen live on south campus. If you are preparing to go to class by eating breakfast or consuming a considerable amount of food for dinner before taking a night into the town, Rams Head is the place to fulfill your needs.
Personally, this dining hall has a special place in my heart. While I have had many wondrous memories at UNC so far, there was a point in time where I was unsure if I was able to adapt to the lively-yet-intimidating surroundings of a large-scale university.
Coming from a small high school in a rural area within the state of Kentucky, the massive scope of UNC’s campus was, at first when moving into Hinton James Residence Hall as a young first-year, remarkably horrifying. When reflecting back on my first meal at Rams Head Dining Hall, I remember feeling a plethora of mixed emotions while entering the building with my newly introduced suitemates: excitement, nervousness, enthusiasm and anxiety.
During that first meal, I had no recollection of what to expect of in terms of my college experience at UNC. This new rambunctious setting left me with multiple questions and very few answers.
However, after eating this one meal with these strangers-eventually-turned friends, I became more confident about my future in Chapel Hill. I felt more secure. I felt more hopeful. I felt more at home.
From that point forward, I knew UNC was the place I wanted to spend my undergraduate years at, and I have not regretted that decision since.
