At long last, it’s finally March! Somewhere in between studying for midterms and figuring out schedules for the fall semester, housing deadlines have once again arrived. Great, yet another stress added onto our already growing list of things to worry about. The last thing we want to think about is where we are going to live next year. Who cares? You sign up in a building or suite with your closest friends, and it doesn’t really matter who else is living around you, right?

We all remember freshman year. We stood awkwardly next to one another, playing silly “Get-to-Know-You” games with peppy orientation advisers who tried to help us make new friends, get involved and transition to living away at school.

As a sophomore, I moved into a suite across campus with some of my friends from last year. I read the names on the door next to me and on the other end of the hallway, not recognizing a single one. Throughout first semester, I would see familiar faces walk in and out of my building, but we would walk right past each other, not knowing how to even begin making the effort to introduce ourselves to one another.

After winter break, when I went to a floor meeting, I saw some of those faces and was surprised to learn that they had been living down the hall from me since September.

It’s important to feel a sense of community within your community. Part of that means getting to know the people around you. College is all about meeting new people and expanding your social networks — especially at Binghamton University, which has people from all over the place. And where better to find them than right down your hallway?

“A home is a place where you feel comfortable and happy,” Marissa Fielstein, a sophomore RA in Hinman College, said. “It’s very important to feel at home in the residential hall. ‘Community’ builds as your friends and the people living around you encourage you to feel that way.”

When signing up for housing, remember that with a change in scenery come new faces and personalities. I lived in Newing College last year, where all my friends were on my floor. Although I loved it there, I’m glad I moved to Hinman College on the other side of campus. I encountered a whole different group of people from each building, people whom I probably would have never known had I stayed in the same place.

Looking back, as silly as those “Get-To-Know-You” games at the beginning of freshman year may seem, they really did help us meet people. I almost wish they extended beyond freshman year. Then I would know the people on my hallway as more than just “the boys next door” or “the girls down the hall.”

It’s great to be sociable and invite people into your group of friends. So when you’re in your room or suite with your friends, get out and knock on all the doors around you. Chances are, they’re looking to meet some new people too.