My lofted bed is in the northwest corner of my dorm room, with two sides against the wall. Earlier in the semester, my sleeping bag hung down horizontally to cover the long side that’s not against the wall, and a thick blue blanket overlapped by a decorative Frozen one enclosed the short, exposed side. My friends and I call it the cave, and off and on it’s been a great spot for me to turn my lamp on and my attention to studying. More recently, the cave has undergone renovation, and instead of it being entirely covered, I’ve set my bookcase on my dresser, which is also under the bed, facing the wall and the shorter side of my bed. Parallel to the long side, my wardrobe hides the dresser and bookcase from the rest of the room. I like to sit, hidden away, in this tiny corner under my bed between the bookcase and the wall. I feel safe in small spaces, and especially enjoy my H&H, which stands for “hermitting and homework,” an acronym I coined.
Reading about my cave and my corner, and my need to be alone to do homework, you probably wouldn’t be surprised to hear that I’m an introvert.
Except for I’m not. At least, I don’t think so. My friend Angga, who majored in Psychology, says that there’s no such thing as truly being an introvert or an extrovert. It’s impossible for a person to be completely one way or the other. And maybe he’s right. What I do know is that prior to college, I considered myself a fairly social, extroverted person, but college changed that.
For the first time, I began to realize a need for alone time. Prior to college, I had lots of friends, but didn’t spend tons of time with them outside of class and co-curricular activities. I would see school friends up to five days of the week, and church friends two. I guess that didn’t really equip me for college, when I would encounter peers at all hours of the day and night. Whether I’m staying up late to research cetology in "Moby Dick," or brushing my teeth before bed, I’m bound to run into people, and as much as I love my friends and classmates, socializing can become exhausting!
Thankfully, even on my private Christian campus, I have discovered plenty of surprising places to get away from the crowd and study, including but not limited to: spaces underneath staircases, the roof of our parking structure, a small hidden alcove near the tennis courts, my bed-cave, and even, once, on an elevator. Trees are also great places to be alone and to read. The beauty of finding odd spots for doing homework is that other people do not tend to use (or know about) these areas, making them trustworthily unoccupied.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s wonderful to meet so many new people, and forge strong relationships in such close proximity. And it’s certainly convenient to be able to visit good friends, just a few doors down, whenever you want. Forget about planning hangouts days in advance — for students living on campus, the next great adventure can be just a walk downstairs away. But, if you do start to get burned out on people once you get to college, give yourself a break by getting away from the crowd every once in awhile. Whether it’s to think, pray, or just do homework, alone time is just as indispensable to college as making friends.
