January 31/Midnight

Erie, Pa. –– Box after box, dorm after dorm, trip after trip, the process of moving is always the same — exhausting. Since starting at Gannon in Fall 2021 I personally have moved my entire life eight separate times. That’s at least twice each year since I’ve been pursuing my academics.

I have lived in dorms including West and Finegan Hall, apartments like the one I’m in now and Wickford, but also my parents’ home for a time.

Moving this many times has never been my first choice for some of the places I’ve lived in I would have preferred to stay. Moving your entire life from place to –place year after year or semester after semester can cause a lot of unnecessary stress mentally and physically.

As a first year I was placed in Finegan Hall like most of my classmates. Finegan is a dorm style housing offered on campus. I had one roommate and for the first time in my life I was living on my own away from my parents. Free to do whatever I liked when I liked. Like most of my peers I packed way too much and ended up getting rid of a lot of those belongings throughout the course of the year. I think by the end of the year I had bought new blankets three separate times.

That summer I had decided to become a Summer Resident Assistant which allowed me to stay in my housing a bit longer, allowing me to settle down more. To be honest though, I don’t think college students are ever quite settled in their dorms. For years I have lived out of bins, never having completely settled because of the knowledge of uprooting and moving again within the next few months.

From there I moved twice in August before classes began, the first to Lubiak Hall before finding out I could be an Academic Resident Assistant in Wickford. Within a week I went from living in a dorm to a full–blown apartment. The more space there is it is inevitable that there will be more to move. I was no exception.

Not only was I living on my own in a dorm for the first time, now I was living in my first ever apartment. Meaning I had access to my own kitchen and bathroom. Now I had to buy toilet paper, soap, and dishes. My very first big girl move.

That spring, I found out that being a big girl would only last that year and I was being placed in West Hall for my RA position. This transition was by far the hardest. But first I moved back in with my parents that summer.

Now if you didn’t know, living with your parents again after being a “big strong independent woman” is not a walk in the park.

All of the independence I had while living on my own was put into question, not to my parents’ fault but now I had to let them know where I was going, when I’d be back, how much money I spent on fast food, basically all the things I hadn’t had to think about for the last two years while being on my own.

Then I made one of the biggest transitions of my moving experience. I had to downsize from apartment living to prepare for dorm life.

Luckily, my parents were willing to store my unneeded items in a closet until I reclaimed them. Living in a dorm again was a big change but I am nothing if not adaptable and I accepted the challenge.

Living in such a small space taught me how to utilize space and the importance of only bringing what you need. Which ended up being true for the next time I moved back to Finegan Hall for a summer. I still didn’t have much to move and since I would be back in West Hall soon after I wasn’t worried about what I needed to bring.

I settled as much as I could into West Hall for one semester until things took a dramatic turn and I was given the chance to live in an apartment again. While packing things up from my dorm to start fresh in an apartment I found a lot that I didn’t even realize I had because they were stored in bins.

Since moving completely last week, I have gained access to more than one room. I have my own bathroom again, my own kitchen. Things I didn’t have for the last two years. I have room to be myself in my own space, to not live in bins, to live freely.

Throughout the years I have learned that moving is one of the hardest but one of the most fulfilling things a person can do. Moving gives opportunities to learn, to grow, and to start fresh.