Fall quarter, my roommate studied abroad in Australia, leaving me to live alone in our apartment for four months. While I was excited for her to spread her wings and experience new things, I was nervous to live alone.
Who would debrief with me after a long day of work and school? Who would I complain to while doing homework? Who would I have dance parties with? And most importantly who would encourage me to have two orders of garlic knots delivered to my door?
I feared that I would become lonely living alone. I pictured myself stuffing my face with a box of chocolate while rewatching Friends in my living room, staring at the empty couch where my roommate should be seated. I was afraid I would hear a strange noise while laying in bed at night, maybe someone creeping up my steps or opening my front door, and not know what to do… (not that my roommate would have any idea, either).
However, my fears weren’t completely realized and many of my questions were answered. Here’s what happened when I lived alone for four months:
1. I became way more productive.
Without being distracted by conversation, it’s crazy how much I could get done after school and on the weekends. Typical nights with my roommate involved us attempting to get work done and ended with us talking about how stressed we were and what we would rather be doing. When I lived alone, I was able to skip the chatter and cut straight to my homework.
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2. I could be loud in the mornings and not worry about waking anyone up.
I’m not an early riser by nature, but my schedule has me up around 6 a.m. during the week. My roommate on the other hand, tends to set up her schedule to where she can sleep in. When living alone, instead of worrying about waking her up, I was able to blast music and dance around the kitchen while making breakfast.
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3. The washing machine became my hamper.
It is so much easier to do laundry when your dirty clothes are already in the washing machine. Since I didn’t have to worry about sharing the washer with anyone, I could leave my dirty laundry in the washer until I was ready to wash it.
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4. AND I could leave my laundry in the dryer for as long as I wanted.
I’m able to do many things, remembering to take my laundry out of the dryer is not one of them. Thankfully, when living alone, this didn’t matter. I could leave my clothes in the dryer until I wanted to wear the clothing items again and then toss them into the washer.
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5. Snapchat video became my BFF.
For some reason it was easier for us to video chat over Snapchat than FaceTime. Though the 15 hour time difference made it difficult to schedule times to talk, my roommate and I often found time to talk late at night U.S. time and mid-day Australian time.
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6. I had to leave my apartment in order to have a social life.
When I lived with my roommate, it was so easy to spend my days couped up in my room studying and my nights gossiping with my roommate and an order of pizza in our living room. However, when I lived alone I didn’t have anyone to socialize with inside, so I was forced to leave my apartment and do things in the city. Through doing so, I met a ton of new people and forged many new relationships.
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7. I occasionally heard strange noises in my apartment.
But the strange noise always turned out to be either my dishwasher running or neighbors coming and going.
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8. I never felt lonely. Not once.
Partially because my schedule kept me so busy and partially because I enjoy my alone time, not once did I feel lonely while living alone. Sure, I missed hanging out with my roommate, but I never felt lonesome.
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Living with a roommate is way more fun than living alone, at least at this point in my life. However, this year I learned that I can live alone without feeling lonely.
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Header image courtesy of Bustle.com.