By Shannon McClain, Guest Columnist
We have options available to us as students in terms of how to live and who to live with.
Single-living can be a viable option if you find it is the right fit for you. All housing options have their merits and drawbacks and it is great that we get to decide for ourselves what works best for us as individuals.
Often, for the first two years of college, students live with a roommate in a traditional dorm room. For their last two years, students generally decide to live either off campus or in South Hall with its apartment style living.
Tradition aside, students can also live without a roommate. You can become a Resident Assistant and live by yourself. You can also, by chance, end up in a double without a roommate. You can also pay for this option. Or you can choose to live in Kreidler Hall, a resident hall entirely made up of single occupancy rooms.
The atmosphere of Kreidler is very friendly and non-cliquey. Everyone is welcoming and willing to start conversations with anyone they meet. I chose to live in a single in Kreidler myself this year, and I couldn’t be happier with my decision. It just works for me.
Those who praise single living enjoy the privacy and the autonomy.
Living alone provides you with a private space of your own. You don’t have to worry about looking decent all the time in case your roommate happens to show up or about having to find another place to have a personal conversation.
You have your own space to use as you want. You can go to sleep and wake up on your own time. This means taking naps whenever you please and not having to coordinate naptime with your roommate’s schedule.
Another positive factor is you have the freedom to keep the room at the temperature of your preference. The heater can be on or off. The windows can be open or closed. Even simple things like this can make living experiences easier and more enjoyable. You can do homework, play music, or have people over without worry. You have the peace and quiet when you want it, yet you can still go hang out with your friends.
However, while there are perks to single living, there are also pitfalls. Some find single living to be lonely and uninteresting.
When you have a roommate there is always someone there to talk to. It offers a special companionship that you can find by living with someone. A roommate learns more about you, and vice versa, than anyone else could learn just by talking to you.
Some also might find living alone to be uninteresting. When you don’t have anything going on Friday night, having a roommate can sometimes give you something to do. You can tag along with whatever they have going on or plan to do something together.
Building close-knit friendships can lessen the effects of these faults to single-living, though. You can still have meals and attend events with friends and build long-lasting bonds outside of traditional resident hall settings.
You learn to do things on your own and find ways to entertain yourself. Being on your own can lend the unique opportunity of self-reliance.
