I’m a spacebar pounder.

I like people to know how fast I can type, so I make sure to hit the spacebar with every muscle in my thumb. I imagine people near me are keeping time while silently counting how many times I hit the spacebar.

“Oh, he got 83 words that minute. That’s a personal best for him,” they say to themselves.

Which is why writing this column – or any column, for that matter – would have been a problem last year.

I lived in Scott Hall, and by now my roommate would be fast asleep. Meanwhile, no more than three feet away, I would be using every ounce of self-constraint in me to make sure my spacebar pounding would not wake him up.

I guess it’s a good thing I live in an apartment this year.

My roommate now sleeps down the hall with his door shut and the lights out, while I’m free to pound the spacebar as hard as I please.

My food actually fits in our full-size refrigerator, and I don’t have to stash my Easy Mac and Pop-Tarts in the desk drawers I should be using for notebooks and folders. We have a living room and a kitchen. And central air.

You don’t have to be a spacebar pounder like me to enjoy the benefits of an apartment.

Fortunately, my roommate and I never had a problem in the residence halls. We both respected the other’s living space.

But when that living space is approximately four square feet, there are lifestyle changes that you need to make. You can’t listen to your music too loud while your roommate is doing homework. Sometimes you have to concede the remote control.

I enjoy the privacy and the extra space that comes with my monthly rent.

Of course, there are some trade-offs. By stepping out of the residence halls, you step into the real world filled with electric bills, dirty dishes and realtors that are not as quick about fixing your broken windows as you would like.

Worst of all, they don’t have A La Carte or chicken tenders from the dining halls in the real world .

The residence halls are something every college student should experience because you will meet a lot of great people there.

If you are torn between that decision to finally endeavor out of the residence halls and into an apartment, I can offer some advice. Decide what is more important: full food and janitorial services, or your own bedroom and a balcony.

But for the spacebar pounders out there, I highly recommend the latter.