I have had mixed experiences when it has come to my college roommate experiences; some good, some bad. Luckily, since my sophomore year, it has been nothing but good. My sophomore year roommate is still one of my best friends and I talk to her pretty much every day still. For some reason, the connection got amplified this year with my roommates, and I'm wondering if it's just because we are sharing our first apartment together.

This weekend, my roommates went home for various reasons and these are the stages of my roommate withdrawal.

1. Being excited to be alone.

This may sound contradictory to the point of this article, but when you are first alone you are so excited about the freedom to do whatever you want, have the place to yourself and not have to worry about if what you are doing will bother your roommates.

2. Slowly realizing that you're lonely.

Yes, it is cool to be by yourself for a while. But once you have done the things you want to do, or the things that are easier to do when nobody else is around (for me laundry or cleaning the main areas) then it's just realizing that it is just you and your thoughts until they come back. For someone who is in their head a lot, this is not necessarily a good thing.

3. Trying to keep yourself busy until they get home.

Luckily (or unluckily?) I have a lot of things that I have to do. The list of assignments I have to do or quizzes I have to take, edits I have to do, etc. is literally never ending. When I am alone at least, I am able to fully concentrate on getting work done and when I am busy being productive I'm not really thinking about how much I miss having people around.

4. Counting down the days (or hours) until they come back.

Ok maybe not 29, but when you're alone time can definitely pass by super slow causing every day to feel like it's taking forever to pass. I've learned that's only so long that I can be productive before I burn out and lack the motivation to do anything of value. That's usually around the time when I sit around thinking about how long it will be until they come home.

5. Celebrating when they are back!!

This hasn't happened yet, but by the end of the night when they come back I will be extremely excited to no longer be alone. I have learned that I absolutely hate being alone for prolonged periods of time, which kind of works to my favor because living alone is way too expensive no matter where you live.

Sometimes you may take advantage of having your roommates around, thinking that it's nothing special because they are always around anyways so you don't necessarily have to value the time. I used to do this, but now I will definitely value when they are home more.