Living off-campus: Pros and Cons - Tangled Up in Blue

Living off-campus can be two-sided, I've found thus far in my month back at Hopkins. While there are many great things that can come out of it, such as the sense of responsibility and "adulthood" of living in "your own place," I foresee it being the ultimate test in my four years of college, especially since I'm living alone. In a way I guess it tests all of us on the basis of how we would do living on our own in the "real world."

I have definitely realized just how far our Hopkins community extends in different directions of campus. No longer are we concentrated in the freshman dorms or in the proximity of 34th St. The longest, most dreaded walk used to be to Phi Psi in the dead of winter. Now it's from the north side of campus to friends' houses on the south side. Now that's a hike. It's bad enough trudging to class up the hills and through campus.

One of my major qualms about living off-campus alone is about eating dinner alone. Sure we all complain about the food at Wolman or Terrace, but the meal was just a little more enjoyable due to the company of the people eating with us. There was always someone around to grab dinner with you over complaints about schoolwork and the other various things we often complain about. Making dinner for yourself is not only difficult (if you want to make something that doesn't require a microwave for your plastic-wrapped meal on a cardboard tray), but it's sad. Taking that one plate out of the cupboard and filling it with more food than one can possibly eat, because making one portion of spaghetti is just too damn hard, is just depressing. There no longer are the guys down the hall that will graciously eat anything as long as it doesn't come out of the dining hall on whom to pass off leftovers. And there's no one to talk to, if you don't count the Bob Dylan posters all over my walls with which I often carry on conversations.

There's also no one to make sure you're up for that important midterm. It's tough to rely on alarms after sleep-deprived nights, as opposed to your trusty roommate who gets up out of bed and shakes you after those alarms have been going off for twenty minutes.

Another thing that I, among many others, am guilty of is going to the library to socialize. Hey, we all know that 90 percent of our school hangs out at the library during the week, so there's a surefire way to cure loneliness. Why not grab your book-bag, throw in some random books and make the hike to sit and chat with people at good old MSE? And plus, you can find plenty of distractions besides other people, like e-mail, getting coffee from Caf Q and playing on the computers. And the library is filled with people doing the same thing you are, avoiding work and avoiding being lonely.

No longer is the thought of not going to class about missing the lecture, but now it's about not seeing people. Going to class has a whole different meaning now. It's about making plans to meet in the library that evening for some companionship during another grueling homework set. It's about making up for lost time in making fun of hilarious professor antics (hey, my professors are quite comical this semester) or of people in class that make crazy remarks (all the time).

Of course, there are some good things about living off campus; number one being that it means we're upperclassmen. We no longer have to live where they tell us, eat in the dining halls or put up with RA's.

Living alone also has its benefits. The me-time, quiet when I'm studying, playing my music as loud as I want without offending anyone with my Dylan CDs, being able to wear my glasses without worrying about looking like a geek (I'm one of those people that looks like a big dork when I wear my glasses), being surrounded by all of my stuff and no one else's, not worrying about waking anyone with my noisy coffee grinder at four o'clock in the morning, falling asleep on the couch and keeping the temperature set at 80 degrees all the time are some great advantages I would never want to be without again.

It also makes me appreciate phone calls much more. I'm happy to know people still care, even though it seems like I live on the other side of the world.

I would like a pet, though. Even if it has to be a cat or turtle or something. But I'd probably be socializing at the library too much and forget to feed it.