<p>I'm pretty sure for all returning college students, we had at least one time where we had to eat alone. How do you feel when you have to eat alone in the dining halls?</p>
<p>Last year I ate alone on occasion and ate with friends on occasion. However, to be honest, the times I ate alone in dining halls were very awkward and uncomfortable. I don't like eating alone in dining halls because I just feel like I'm eating in front of everyone on stage. I know no one cares about someone eating alone because everybody else is wrapped up in their discussions with friends and eating. It's not that I'm ashamed or embarrassed, it's just a weird, uncomfortable feeling lol. </p>
<p>Anybody else could relate to this or no? lol</p>
<p>Read a newspaper, a magazine, or play with your Gameboy. Just keep yourself occupied. You won’t seem like a loser if you keep yourself occupied.</p>
<p>I have the same worries, and this is what I intend to do.</p>
<p>I could relate in the sense that I don’t eat with my friends all the time. I like my friends to hang out with their other friends as well and don’t want to be inside of their ass all the time lol. But when I’m eating alone I just try to stay occupied. I bring my iPod and just listen to music, internet surf, etc.</p>
<p>And @Hauteclere: I don’t think anyone would think you’re a loser if you don’t keep yourself occupied. Like the OP said, people are too wrapped up in their friends and discussions to be pointing at someone and saying “look at that loser!!! he’s eating alone!!!” And plus, in general, college students are marginally more mature than HSers.</p>
<p>There were lots of times when I couldn’t eat with anyone due to the timing or whatever. Like others said, bring a book or newspaper. I often texted people so I’d have something to do. I didn’t feel self-conscious about it after a while. It was whatever, it’s not high school.</p>
<p>I don’t see it as a problem. I usually bring something to read anyway. But often I’d come in alone and people would approach me and start a conversation with me, so I wouldn’t usually end up eating alone.</p>
<p>I’m not a huge fan of eating alone, and when I had to do it, I brought my laptop. I could almost always find someone to go along with me though considering that I only ate like once a day in the caf.</p>
<p>Overall I rarely ate in the cafe ( hint, room had a kitchen and surprisenly I was a little more picky than I thought I would be). At the time I did, it was mainly breakfast ( like between 6:30-7:15am). I never made plans to eat with anyone considering most students are still asleep and it is breakfast, there is little time to make arrangements when your on the go. Especially if you have early classes. If you feel odd try to keep yourself occupied with your phone. However that works for any situation.</p>
<p>Same here. I almost always ate breakfast alone, and usually ate lunch alone simply because of when my classes were scheduled. Ate dinner with friends though.</p>
<p>I ate alone all the time last year, at least once a day. I rarely have more than 20-30 minutes for breakfast and lunch so I just put on my iPod and eat. I’m not a loner or anything, it’s just a thousand times easier and it’s not a big deal to me. It’s too much of a hassle to try to carefully coordinate schedules with your friends for every day of the week just because you’re afraid of what other people think of you. It’s not high school. No one cares whether or not you’re eating alone. Being insecure about tiny things like that is so exhausting. Just relax and do what your schedule allows. Plus, in a few years, you’ll more than likely be graduating and moving off on your own. You’ll be doing a ton of stuff on your own. Why not start now?</p>
<p>I ate lunch by myself a few times. It wasn’t a big deal, but sometimes I would get lunch, bring it up to my room (we had a dining hall in my dorm) and see if anyone was doing anything. My floor was really close, so if someone saw you eating alone in the lounge they’d come and hang out with you unless you were also studying or something.</p>
<p>I pretty much always eat alone whenever I go out to eat. I don’t really care if anyone think I’m a loser…problem solved. (This isn’t high school, you don’t know 99.99% of the people you see)</p>
<p>I only ate lunch last year because of commuting and I usually ate alone. Wasn’t a big deal, I’d usually grab a paper or read the news on my phone just to kill time. Would’ve been nice to eat with people more often but honestly it gave me some time to just relax and tune the day out for a bit.</p>
<p>This is like my only fear about college to be completely honest. I HATE eating by myself. Whenever I go out to a restaurant and see someone eating by themselves, I just feel really sorry for the person and have the urge to go sit down with them and strike up a conversation. I don’t, of course, but that’s what I always want to do. :-/</p>
<p>^ I wouldn’t want someone to strike up a conversation with me when I’m eating alone. I use the time to think about classes and talk to myself (don’t worry, myself doesn’t answer back ).</p>
).</p>