Opinions and Editorials Section
By Abby Knox, Opinions and Editorials Editor
There is something that they do not teach you in school like they do math and reading, and that is how to be alone.
College is weird. If you are like me, you went from never sharing a room with anyone but yourself to sharing a 16×19 room with someone around 24/7, which in my first semester of college was definitely an adjustment.
As my time at college has passed, I have worked on learning quite the opposite of what I first learned during my first semester here at Xavier. During my first semester of college, I struggled being around people so often. Yet, after the first-year buzz finally wore off, friend groups split, people adjusted and I had gotten so used to being around all these people, that when they were not there anymore I felt…off.
That being said, I have had to learn how to spend time with myself.
Because when college is over and all my friends go their separate ways, and I cannot look over to my roommate in my little 16×19 dorm room, it will just be me. I will be in my small apartment, decorated just to my liking, with what I imagine would be a lot of warm lighting and a filled bookshelf.
Opinions and Editorials Editor Abby Knox expressed the importance of knowing how to be okay with being by yourself.
Learning to be by yourself is not easy. There are constant thoughts and reflections on past decisions and trying to figure out who you truly are as a person, without anyone else’s opinions or thoughts. It takes time. At first it might seem overwhelming, but as time passes you start to look forward to spending this time with yourself.
The college environment really gives us no time where we can be alone. In fact, it makes it feel like you have to be around others 24/7, and if you are not constantly surrounded by people then you are a loner.
That is not true. The narrative pushed about a stereotypical college experience is one where alone time does not and should not exist.
Yet, at the end of the day, if I cannot spend time alone, then how can I learn to spend time with others? Being happy with who you are as a person on the inside is a lesson that some go their whole lives without learning.
So, I challenge you to spend time with yourself, find yourself. Before your time at college is over, learn to be alone.
Pull out that journal that you bought at the beginning of the year but has been collecting dust since Jan. 1. Take yourself out on a shopping spree to TJ Maxx. Go buy yourself the iced coffee you know you deserve after a stressful week.
