There have been countless weekends where I am hanging out completely alone eating pizza in my bed. I'll be totally content with my alone time, until I hear some girls in the hallway profess their drunken love for each other followed by some music coming from my neighbors. I then wonder...am I here because nobody wants to hang out with me? Am I weird for enjoying being alone? Am I doing college correctly?

Then suddenly I go from being alone to feeling alone. I will be the first to admit that this is actually really difficult. I have always accepted that I was never going to be that sorority girl or the seemingly Instagram famous girl, but who knew college could be so lonely. I am still learning how to be okay being an introvert at heart, so I am not going to preach my methods; however, I feel the need to push the normalization of being alone in college. We are always told that the key to adapting to your new surroundings is to join clubs, Greek life, and study groups all to make friends. These are perfect ways to do exactly that, but it's not that easy for some of us. Personally, I am extremely picky about who I allow in my personal space which certainly makes it harder to feel included in college life.

I am hoping to be more comfortable in my own space, but that is very hard when your current place in life requires you to be a social butterfly. Unfortunately, I am much more of a caterpillar in a cocoon, and it seems the most pressure to socialize is in the college setting.

To my fellow introvert college gals, you might be alone in your room tonight, but you truly are not alone! There are others, including myself, who are not the most outgoing person on the planet, but still have this desire to be a part of something. It's a hard contradiction to live with, but in the meantime, learn to be okay with your own company and enjoy the peace you get from spending some alone time.