I am a self-professed extrovert. I thrive when I am with people, have a hard time being alone, and get major FOMO very easily. Despite all of these things that I know about myself, when the time came around for room picks, because of study abroad, I found myself in need of a single.
My first thought was one of panic. How am I ever going to handle living by myself? I have lived in a quad for the past two years and genuinely enjoy being constantly surrounded by people. And, the most terrifying thought of all, what if I end up spending all of my time alone?
After some reflection, I realized that I had no reason to panic. My friends in my dorm would just be a walk up the stairs away and I still had all of my friends outside of my dorm.
I will admit, that the first week in my single was an adjustment. There were so many new things to get used to: who to eat with, who to make midnight ice cream runs with, who to vent to when you walk into your dorm. My life felt very quiet, especially in comparison to living with three other people for two years.
The benefits of the single life, however, slowly became apparent. When I came home and the room was messy, I did not need to worry about it bothering anyone else, it was just bothering me. If I came home at three a.m. from the library, I would not be waking anyone up. The space was totally mine. If I blare my music I don’t need to worry that it is a song that someone doesn’t like. Everything in the room is mine and that is liberating.
I have come to embrace my single life. For me, it is the perfect transition between living in a dorm and living in a real apartment. There is something about living alone that makes you feel more adult, even if it is in a dorm. I am learning to be the independent woman that I see in myself, the one with the cool apartment who lives alone and loves it. My single life in a tiny dorm room is one small step in the right direction.
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