Walking into your first semester of college can be an unnerving, yet extremely exciting experience. With a new campus, new teachers, and new friends, anything can happen! For some, a major component that determines your experience at WashU is the person you spend a large portion of your time with: your roommate. Roommates: you either love them or you don’t. Everyone has a different experience.

I am tired of feeling uncomfortable where I live and missing everyone from home. But, most of all, it is so easy to feel like I am missing something everyone else has.

Abroad, for many, is not the incredible, life-changing experience everyone says it is. In fact, it can be an isolating and painful time, during which one secludes themselves in their room, gets in their head, and causes themselves pain through afflictions like loneliness.