“Wow, so you live alone?”
“How do you like living alone?”
“Do you get lonely?”
These are literally the questions that I always get asked from choosing living by myself this year.
The reasons of why I live alone
I have lived with roommates since I was 14. I lived with them starting while at boarding school for high school and then for the first two years of college. There were times that I could say I loved living with roommate(s), but there were also moments where I wished I didn’t live with other people. One time it got to the point where it was not the healthiest living situation ever, and I actually had to move out. This summer was especially tough—I lived with a friend who I like as a person but sadly, we did not get along as roommates.
We both felt like the luckiest girls in the world for the first month or so because we could do everything together. We would watch movies, listen to music, study at the beach, go shopping, and basically, we always had each other for company. At night, we could come home and talk about our days, or ask for advice for things going on in our lives. But it started going downhill when we started bringing people over. I know this probably not a problem for anyone else, but it was a huge deal for us that it did not sit well with how we want to spend the rest of our year together. We love our friendship and didn’t want to strain that relationship because we are roommates. In the end, we chose to each find a new apartment separately.
I was hesistant to live alone at the beginning…
I was scared, and I had to choose if I wanted to find a new place with other people or live alone. I would literally go on Google and ask Google if I should live by myself or not. My partner had asked me to move in with him, but because my parents believe that should wait until after marriage, that wasn’t an option for me. I eventually decided that I didn’t want to go through the same hassle of finding new friends to live with, so I chose to live alone.
The first five months of living alone…
I decorated my apartment with my mother which was one of the best parts of this journey. We bought new sofas, a coffee table, a tv and many other necessary supplies that we need in our home. We also bought flowers to embellish our little patio. We both worked to make sure my place felt homey, and I do like living here right now. The pros of living alone include that I do not bother anyone if I were to want to bring people over, I can be as loud as I want, stay up all night (or stay in early)—overall it was just a lot more freedom.
I do sometimes miss having roomates…
If I get my zipper stuck, I don’t have any roommates to help me out anymore. I don’t miss it that much though, which was surprising because I thought I would regret my decision. Part of it might be because my friends are always over and it hardly feels like I live alone sometimes. Yeah, it can be lonely sometimes but compared to when I had roommates in the past, it gave me even more loneliness and headache when I had to deal with living situation problems. We are also human, and we do feel lonely at times with or without people around us. Besides, let’s be real, it is our home, and when we are tired after a day of working, we want a shelter that makes us feel comfortable living in it. With conflicts arises, it could make you feel homeless, and your apartment would not feel homey.
The bottom line…
If you have roommate(s) and love living with them, great for you! This is completely based on how I feel and my experiences toward this particular subject, and I respect other people’s opinion about it. Addition to that, this article, Should You Live Alone or With a Roommate, that I found on the Internet was also one of the resources that helped me in deciding. I hope this article helps you in any way if you are currently deciding whether or not to get your own apartment!