A room of one's own...

... is such an adjustment. Good and strange at the same time.

Pros: sitting around in my underwear, shutting off the lights and go to bed whenever I want to, a LOT of extra space, worrying much less about how my habits may or may not affect another person, no one makes underhanded comments about what I do/don't do/eat/read/sing, etc. Some examples: I was too hot last night and I couldn't fall asleep, so I got up, took off my pajamas, and crawled back in bed. This morning when my alarm went off, I climbed out of bed, turned it off, and promptly feel right back asleep in my chair. Without any clothes on. But it was no big deal, because no one would have seen me (this is doing wonders for my self esteem- I can be naked whenever I want! (I really hope this isn't offending anyone...)).

The only really big con now is that the last two quarters, all I wanted was to NOT be in my room, so I was out and about all the time. Now I don't feel the compulsion to be active constantly (it was my excuse for not being in the room), and I feel less productive.

Moreover I'm definately going to have a lax quarter- on top of living by myself, I'm only taking 12 credits (still a full time student, but I needed a break from the sciences, and I figured that since all of my other courses actually pertained to my areas of study (one of them being this really intense but cool literary theory course, which I really don't want to be distracted from), biology would just distract me from stuff that I really need and want to know. Moreover, I wasn't all that excited to take it anyway. I'll finish my science GURs eventually, but after last quarter, when all of my courses were ones that I took because I had to, not because I wanted to, I think I owe myself at least a few months of studying that about which I am passionate. This is a really long parenthetical aside...). So I'm only in class from 1-4 every day, which means that I'll have a lot of free time from here on out. Hello, rec center and bike trails and vacant pianos in the PAC and outings with friends and creative writing...

I listed "worrying much less about how my habits may or may not affect another person" as a pro of having my own room, but for me it's actually a major adjustment, and not necessarily a good one. I'm so used to always being aware of someone physically near me (let's face it, I was side-by-side with another fetus the entire time I was in utero, I shared a crib with said fetus, then I shared a room with it, and then shared a room with my sister, and then a year with a fantastic roommate, then half a year with a catatonic roommate). When you have spent your entire life, even your prenatal life, with someone else keeping you company (and for better or for worse, you can't get away from them), it is very weird to be alone all of a sudden. I'm not walking on eggshells trying not to bug anyone, but I'm also afraid that I may lose the heightened conscienciousness that comes with spending that much time and energy focusing on how what I do affects other people. Hmmm.