One of the things I feared the most while anticipating college my freshman year was getting along with my roommate. Granted, most of the time roommate situations work out fine, and if it doesn't work as well as you'd hoped, you could always switch to a different dorm. I knew that, and yet I was still terrified.
We had sent each other a few emails, as most roommates do, to figure out who should bring what, but I don't think either of us really felt a connection. I was disappointed, of course, because I wanted to connect with my roommate in the best way possible — I wanted to have that roommates-and-best-friends vibe. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. We were two completely different people with different outlooks on rules and boundaries. We made our dorm work, and I don't think we really had a big fight (for which I'm thankful).
About halfway through the first semester, my roommate sprung it on me that she was going to move to the on-campus apartments for personal reasons. No, we didn't get into a huge fight or anything like that. Of course, I was thinking, "Cool, a whole dorm room to myself? I can do whatever the heck I want!" The next day, my roommate moved out, and I was living in the lap of luxury. For a whole two weeks or so.
Two weeks was all it took for me to get sick of having my room to myself. I love my privacy as much as the next person, but it was lonely. It still kind of is. All my friends would talk about going out and doing things with their roommates, or staying up to talk until 2 a.m. It flat-out sucked hearing about all the interesting things they'd do together. It was like people were telling me what I was missing out on.
Don't miss out on those experiences. Privacy is something a lot of people cherish, and dorm life probably isn't the ideal way to spend a whole school year. I'm not going to lie, the rooms are small, and they're not as amazing as Beca's room in "Pitch Perfect" (I had high expectations because of that movie). There's not a lot of open space, so you have to be creative with your organization and storage. But believe me, when I say that having a room all to yourself, while great in theory, isn't great during your freshman year. You'll be alone while it seems like everyone else has someone. Even if you make 2,000,000,001 friends during your freshman year (you lucky dog), they're all bound to go back to their roommates and have some world-changing experiences with them.
So yes, having a room to myself is nice. It definitely has its perks (the excess of space, the privacy, #norules), but it isn't all sunshine and rainbows. If you find yourself in the situation your freshman year of college where you don't have a roommate and there's still a decent chunk of the year left, go find yourself a roommate. Privacy is nice and all, but having a roommate freshman year is an experience you'll only get once.
Don't miss out.
