A Quick Guide to Tackling being Alone and Bored on Campus

Going into my second year of college, something I have learned to adjust to is the long periods where I would just be alone on campus. My friends may be at another class or a club, and my roommate may be heading back home for break. 

With all this dead time, I had to learn how to truly adjust to being alone. 

Back home, I had two siblings, two parents, and I was constantly going to and from school or after-school activities. I would treat alone time as a coveted time that I would only get for an hour every weekday. In college, that ballooned up to 50% of my time, if not more.

At first, it was nice to just rot and watch Instagram Reels all day on my phone, but eventually, that got to be too much, and forced me to spiral into even more loneliness. Plus, it made me extremely unproductive, and I realized that something had to change. The way that I started to combat that was to start doing things in my newfound time alone; maybe someone else can take this list and replicate it in their own lives. 

1. Working out.
   In the mornings, I started to get back into running for the sake of running. This made it so I was able to have a small moment of peace before I start the day, and that moment sets me up to feel more productive and happy.
2. Finding new campus spots.
   I started to explore different cafès and hidden study spots across campus, finding places that I never would have thought to study before. Now that I am on a new part of campus, there are even more secret parts to explore.
3. Honing in on passions.
   Instead of just doing homework, I also work on skills and passions that apply to my future career. I write articles (such as this one) and do graphic design and social media posts so that I can not only build my portfolio, but also do something that I truly enjoy.
4. Sleeping/napping.
   As someone who never took a nap after preschool, I have realized just how amazing and important they are to my sanity. Now, when everyone is at home for the weekend, I take the time to get some extra sleep that I may have been missing out on.
5. Working/internship stuff.
   While I do other things than work, I use this time to do extra work so that when everyone is in town, I can spend more time with them without worrying about if I have an assignment or not.
6. Self-care.
   The most important thing that I do at the end of the day is some basic self-care. Sometimes it’s just decompressing and texting my friends who go to other universities, and sometimes it’s cleaning out my room while listening to a YouTube video or music. No matter what it is, it’s a nice way to truly take advantage of time for myself.

To anyone else who may be dealing with the concern of being lonely, I would say do not fret — sometimes, that is simply the way that college is, and it is no one’s fault. Of course, you should do your best to make friends and connections with other people; however, that does not mean that having loads of alone time is bad. If anything, it can be time to recharge before spending time with your friends, and to make it so the focus can be on the people you love.

• #boredom
• #HCMSU
• #Hercampus
• #MSU
• #solo