Here's a Tip: FIND A HAPPY PLACE

I would consider myself a people person. I had plenty of friends in high school, my yearbook is chock full of signatures, my phonebook had 80 numbers in it easily, and I always had a connection with groups of people in my classes. I hung out with people on weekends and I spent my time chatting online or running up my text-messaging bill. Here's the thing about high school: after that final bell rings, you go home and unless you're in a strange situation, you don't live with these people.

Your social obligation is officially over.

That's not exactly the case here. You're constantly with people -- not just with people -- you're with strangers. You know so little about these people and suddenly, you're living with them and they're bumming food off you and you them and you can't so much as go to dinner without telling five other people to put their pants on and get their shoes tied and help them find their ID so maybe, half an hour later, you can go eat.

Sometimes it's hard. As much as you love the people around you, sometimes you can't handle being around everybody constantly. A simple task like watching a movie becomes an enormous group decision involving voting and majorities. Sometimes it becomes frustrating because maybe the movie you want to watch never gets picked and instead you're watching Love, Actually for the nine hundredth time.

That's why it's crucial to find a happy place.

It's healthy and natural to need some time to yourself when five other people aren't in your room and there aren't four people with computers with all sorts of different music blaring out of the speakers. That's ok. You're not being "anti-social." You shouldn't just go off by yourself every opportunity you get, but whenever you need a break to do some homework, or just send out some e mails to friends without somebody reading over your shoulder, it's really alright.

Drake is the King of all little nooks, crannies, and secret little hiding places. Because I am one of these people who likes to get some peace and quiet to collect my thoughts now and again, might I offer some suggestions?

Olmstead -- Olmstead is the student lounge type of place. It's got a cafeteria in the basement; the radio booth is there, the coffee/smoothie shop, the D-Shoppe, and these amazing red chairs. Ok, Olmstead can be noisy, that's true but it's different when you don't know the people around you and you're just kind of zoning out of what's going on around you and chilling in one of these amazing red chairs. I want to find out who manufactures this heavenly piece of furniture and get one for my house. Also, Olmstead has an upstairs (lovingly dubbed "upper Olmstead"). In Upper Olmstead there are more chairs (not the red ones, though) and little coffee tables and the like. Grab a smoothie and chill out with your iPod a while. Get this... Upper Olmstead has an Upper Olmstead. I believe it's called the Olmstead Mezzanine. It has tall chairs and tall tables and little futon-like things and it's REALLY quiet up there. It's also really cool because if you look out of the windows you can see the main part of campus and if you're in to people watching, you'll enjoy yourself.

The Library -- Wow! The library is three floors of miraculous silence and full of that smell of old books that I love so much. I don't really go the library for the heck of it, but if you're one of those people who need that kind of environment to study for finals and whatnot, this is for you. It's cool because there are random little corners with the bookshelves that have desks and chairs that are lovely. The newspaper room, which is downstairs, has nicer chairs and every newspaper imaginable. I love grabbing the latest copy of the Rocky Mountain News so I can see what's going on back home. But, the best part of the library is easily The Reading Room. The Reading Room is simply gorgeous. It's this huge room with bookshelves all around the walls with these enormous windows that the sunshine just comes pouring in through. Plus, it's probably one of the quietest rooms in the library, and that is saying something. Just be sure to shut your sound off your computer when you're in there, unless you want a roomful of upperclassmen staring at you.

Carpenter Hall -- Sometimes it's a little too cold to make the trek out to the library or Olmstead, but there are cool places right here in Carpenter Hall. There's a recreation room with a pool table, a ping-pong table, and a TV that doesn't really get any use during the day. It's especially nice for those days when your roommate sleeps in and you need to get stuff done, but don't really want to be moving around the room and making a lot of noise. Or it's nice if you want to watch Boy Meets World early in the morning.

Moral of the story: find a happy place where you can just chill and enjoy a few moments to yourself. They're out there; you just need to go find them.