When you think of the typical college experience, many things are called to mind. Classes, homework, new friends, parties, independence, dorm room decor... It's also probably more than fair to say that the concept of living with a roommate is one of the things that's pretty high up on that list of things that are to be expected when you go to college.

Now, picture this: You get to school, expecting to have someone to live with, and then, due to some unknown circumstances, she never shows up. The other half of the room where your potentially built-in college friend was supposed to live is empty, and whenever you return to your room, you're completely and totally alone.

With that image in your head, you now have an accurate depiction of my first 6 weeks of college. If you're anything like me, maybe this concept sounds amazing at first glance. If I'm being honest, I thought it was pretty great at the beginning:

For a while, the situation struck me as more than ideal. That is, if I needed a moment to myself, I was guaranteed that solace. When I wanted to stay on FaceTime with my boyfriend until after midnight, I wasn't disturbing anyone. Heck, I could even sleep in my underwear every night and no one would ever know. (Come on, you know you'd do it, too.) For these reasons and many more, I truly thought that I was living the dream.

Pretty soon, however, I began to feel a little bit strange. Although I spent time with good friends that I had made outside of my dorm room, it seemed that whenever I was alone, I was anxious, and started self-evaluating an awful lot more than I probably should have. With being in an already overwhelming new environment, this was the last thing that I needed to be experiencing. But what exactly was the root of my problem?

...Could it be? Was I, Amanda Gribbin, lonely?

As it turns out, I was, in fact, at least a bit lonely. Although it hasn't solved all of my problems, I ended up getting a roommate about a week ago, and my moods have already began to look up. Honestly, I couldn't have asked for a better person to have move in with me, because despite the fact that we haven't known each other for long, we get along wonderfully and can talk to each other without much effort involved. Furthermore, I've found that she is also going through some of the same things that I am, and overall, it's just nice to not have so much time to myself. With a family-oriented background like mine, living alone was surely taking more of a toll on me than I had initially realized.

While I thought that I had it great without a roommate, after only a week with one, I have discovered that this way of living is much more positive. This is made even more true by the fact that we not only coexist, but have also formed the beginnings of what I believe will be a lasting friendship.

Roommates are part of the college experience, and if you're lucky, you'll wind up with someone good, even if it does take six weeks to happen.