One thing I hadn’t really thought about coming into the spring semester was that I would have to choose where to live my sophomore year. As an honors freshman, I was put into Louis L. Redding Hall, which I am incredibly thankful for. The building is not only updated and beautiful, but it also harbors an amazing sense of community amongst honors students. I guess I was so infatuated that I hadn’t quite come to terms with the fact that I couldn’t possibly live in Redding forever. It really hit me when we all got e-mails about the time slots for our housing appointments.

One of the greatest things about Redding is how close all the floors and sections get. I got particularly lucky in that nearly everyone in my section became great friends fairly quickly in the year; however, this made the proposition of moving even harder. It’s basically impossible to find another building or floor to both accommodate and fit the needs of very different people who all have very different housing appointments. Still, though we knew it would be a huge struggle, we all held on to a little bit of hope.

The real fun began on the first day the application opened for any of us, when, at various hours of the day, pairs of roommates would freak out in the group chat, scrambling to pick their room with the rest of us in mind. We soon realized the cut-throat nature of the housing application, and that no matter how many times we refreshed the page, we couldn’t magically make more empty rooms appear in Caesar Rodney. Although I’m sure we all knew it deep down, that day really solidified the fact that none of us would be in exactly the same place next year.

Of course, a few of us found common floors or buildings. My roommate and I get to live across from our current almost-next-door neighbors in Squire next year, and a triple and a double from the group are even right next door in Harter. But, for the most part, we found ourselves divided by different floors, buildings, and ends of the green, meaning that my beloved freshman year group in Redding will be split up next year.

And while this fact is upsetting, I’ve decided not to let it get me down. I know next year won’t be the same. I won’t be able to come home from class and find everyone in the main 3rd floor lounge. I won’t be able to hear talking in the hallway and open my door to see all of my friends sitting around on the floor. But, despite these little traditions being gone, we’ll still all be at UD, and we’ll get the chance to make new traditions. No matter where we live, one of us will still be bound to ask what time dinner is every night or argue over which dining hall has the best menu. Sophomore year, for me and all of my new best friends, will definitely be different, but we’ll still all be us, and that’s all that really matters to me.

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