Coming into college my freshman year, I was so nervous about sharing a room for the first time. When I was younger, I shared a room with my little sister, so it wouldn’t be the first time sharing a room, but this was completely different. I would be living full-time on a college campus with someone I didn’t know, in a place I didn’t know.
During my first semester here, I didn’t mind having a roommate, but it took a lot of getting used to. I had to get used to different sleep schedules, different routines, and different ways of living, and doing this all with a complete stranger.
After the first semester, my roommate transferred to a different college, so I had my dorm room all to myself. I got used to a mega bed, having extra space for my things, and being able to be just by myself in my room whenever I needed to. I started to like living with this and thought that maybe having roommates wasn’t for me.
But now, being in my junior year here at SBU, I couldn’t imagine living here without roommates.
I realized that it doesn’t always have to be hard living with someone else; you just have to find the right people to live with. And turning my best friends into my roommates was the best choice of a roommate I could have.
I spend almost all of my spare time with my roommates, doing everything together. We drive to classes together, eat all our meals together, start new TV shows together, and spend the rest of our nights together until we go to bed.
Even when I want to be alone sometimes, I’m still with my roommates. If I just need a break to sit in silence and do nothing, I sit in my living room with my roommates and do nothing with them. If I need to get my mind off something, I can start a new documentary with my roommate to distract myself.
Although sometimes I still have those days when I just want to be alone in my room and do nothing all day, living in a townhouse has made it possible to still live with other people surrounding you all the time, but have the time alone that I need, knowing they are right outside my room.
But finding the right roommates has shown me that even though I might need some time to myself, sometimes it’s better to be alone with your roommates.