You and your friends have been planning for months. You agreed to live together in November, you knew which rooms you wanted, on which floor and you had practically decorated your shared bathroom. Then, all four of you gathered around the computer and waited for the clock to turn from 2:29 to 2:30 — your exact housing lottery time, only to find out that all of your possible rooms were taken.
Changing the name of your “This is the Suite Life” group chat, you split into two rooms of two people. Not so bad, until you realized you would live completely across campus from your best friends.
This was me and my friends’ experience picking rooms for next fall. After letting it sink in for a week, we’ve been trying to look for some of the positives out of the situation (besides having excellent calf muscles from trekking across campus every day). Here are five we’ve found:
1. Exposure to New People
Even though all four of us have friends outside our immediate group, it might be hard to meet and hang out with new people if we were living four feet away from each other. Being apart will allow us to branch out and expand our circle.
2. “Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder”
We might be meeting new people, but spending time apart in our far away dorms will make us try harder to spend time with each other. We’re best friends, but living next to each other might have been a little too much. Time apart will make us appreciate each other’s presence even more.
3. Better Access to Different Parts of Campus
Sure, our friends in Robins might live right next to all of our class buildings, but we’re more focused on their close proximity to lodges. Our dorms on both sides of campus provide us the perfect spot to keep our coats and “hang out” before we go out.
4. Better Sleepovers
With the bigger room and an extra closet, my roommate and I have agreed to keep a fold-out mattress and a bin full of their clothes in our room. Sleepovers and movie nights will be more fun if you’re further than a couple feet away from going home.
5. Planning for Next Year
You know that these people aren’t going anywhere, so might as well start planning next year’s apartment with them.