Take a moment and close your eyes (don't actually close your eyes because you will not be able to read this), and imagine you just finished your first semester of college. You are living in a spacious dorm with the most amazing roommate you could have ever asked for. It is the start of the second semester after winter break. Everybody somehow already knows where they are living for the next school year and you don't have the slightest idea of what you are going to do. Now, figuratively reopen your eyes. The situation I just made you imagine yourself in may not seem very stressful, but let me tell you a little something, it is. I know this because I am in that situation.

I am at the start of my second semester of freshman year. I fortunately am very content with my current living situation. Back home in Pennsylvania, I go to college in Charleston, South Carolina, most of the students at colleges there just stay in the dorms for almost the whole 4 years, but for some unknown reason that is not a thing here. Now, living off-campus would not be such a bad thing if I could afford to do that. I go to school in a city, a very well-known touristy city. With that being said, rent for an apartment pretty much costs an arm and a leg if you do not have a steady income. I do have a job that pays very well for someone like me, but I only work part-time because I'm a student. The main contributor to this conflict of mine is definitely money, but so much more adds to it.

The most logical thing here to do is to just live in a dorm next year, but here is the issue: I'll be a sophomore in a dorm. This doesn't seem like much of a problem to a normal person, but as explained earlier, it is. I would very much love to room with my current roommate because she is basically my roommate-soulmate. Unfortunately, she is living in an apartment with someone else next year (ouch!). Her and the individual she is staying with both want me to come live with them because they need a third roommate. I would love to join them, but I don't have almost $900 for rent every month coming out of my rear end. It's not like the set rate is $900, every single one of us has to pay $900 a month to add up to that months rent. Totally outrageous if you ask me considering I am just a college student.

I have another friend that I enjoy greatly who is not going to be living in a dorm next year as well. She will be living in an apartment that is offered through the school. I have been considering this option greatly because the cost would be included in the tuition, which I have my student loans to cover. This option seems like the best, but in the long-run I would still be paying for more than what a dorm is. My last resort would be applying for housing for another year and go through the roommate process again. I would hate to go through the roommate process again because it is stressful the first time. I would basically feel like I'm going through college for the first time again.

All in all, I would really love to kick myself in the butt. If I wasn't so antisocial I could have made a lot more friends my first year of school. I possibly would not have this dilemma because I'm sure at least someone else would be staying in a dorm that would love to stay with me. The moral of this story is to make friends in college as soon as you can to avoid any sort of living conflicts.