School is starting up again and students are moving back into dorm rooms, apartments and their parents’ basements. At some point during all of this movement, some people are going to choose to live on their own-and although there is a stigma attached to living alone, it’s worth it to spend some time in college by yourself.

As we go through life, we are constantly surrounded by people. Before we move out of the house, it’s our parents-and after that it’s roommates, wives, husbands, children and then grandchildren. If there is a certain time in our lives where we should be taking advantage of being alone, it is now.

During my first year in college, I stayed in the dorms here on campus and had great roommates. When any one of us was being too loud, we had no problem letting the other person know so we could get to our studying, sleeping or drinking (I like it quiet when I drink).

After a while, I realized that it doesn’t matter how great a person is in the real world. Once you spend a certain period of time with them, silent annoyance can slowly separate you.

No matter how honest you are with them about the situation, you just need to spend some time alone, a luxury not readily available to those stacked on top of one another in the dorms.

After my first year in college, I decided to get an apartment all to myself, much against the opinion of many of my close friends and financial adviser.

The first couple of weeks were hard, especially when it came to going to bed. But after a while I got used to it and even started enjoying living by myself.

When the dishes didn’t get washed I had no one to answer for it. I just washed them when I had the time. There was no longer the annoyance of being woken up at 2 a.m. by a drunken roommate in the mood

to party.

The big drawback to living alone has always been making sure that you don’t get too lonely. I can get so comfortable on my futon that I don’t leave that often, and after a while, some friends can forget about my existence. So instead of lying around the house all of the time, living alone has taught me to get up, get out and do something-and it is always nice to know that if the night starts sliding downhill, I have somewhere I can go to get away from the drunken college madness.

There are several different places I could be living five years from now, but living alone is probably not going to be one of them. There is a high chance of me being a broke, starving artist, and broke can’t afford living on its own. There’s also a chance of the Disney fairytale coming true-I could meet a girl, fall in love and be surrounded on all sides by happiness, and people. But for now, I am going to keep living on my own because this may be the only time in my life that I really get the chance.