As we all know, after three years of living on campus we have the option to move off campus and no longer suffer and/or enjoy the dorm life. Personally, I can’t wait to move off campus and enjoy the perks of my own bedroom, but I also somewhat fear the increased responsibility of managing my living arrangement. It almost makes me think about the benefits of living on campus senior year and never leaving the simple dorm life.

Why do I want to move off campus? I want my own bedroom and maybe even my own bathroom. As much as I enjoy living in very close quarters with someone else in one tiny bedroom and deepening the bonds of friendship, I want my own room. I want a door that I can close and have a place no one else can claim is her room, too. I want anything larger than a twin-sized bed and I want to not sleep four feet away from someone else. I want my alarm to go off and not wake up my roommate and vice versa. I want to snore as loud as I want and not hear my roommate complain. Most importantly, I want a kitchen. I want to cook meals and eat anything other than Mabee, Einstein’s, sandwiches and imitation Taco Taco.

Why would one stay on campus? Pure convenience. Not paying any bills, not dealing with “˜adults’ who may or may not complain about your college, loud music partying, ways, not driving to class, not budgeting at the grocery store and breakfast tacos until midnight on weekdays. Yeah, OK, living on campus is convenient and you can keep all your friends close, but don’t you have to transition into the real world at some point?

For me, moving off campus is about transitioning into post-graduation and paying bills. Living in the dorm, we just pay one fee at the beginning of each semester and””poof””everything is all taken care of: electricity, Internet, water, the works. Now that I am searching for apartments, I realize all the different bills associated with living other than just rent. Being on or off campus, we still go to an amazingly close-knit school where the sense of community would theoretically stay intact even if we weren’t living on campus. Next year, resting comfortably in my queen-size bed, I will still cherish memories of pre-renovated Winn, ridiculously loud toilet flushes, cockroaches in my shower on Thomas seventh and four girls with long hair sharing one old and creepy bathroom.