Having a roommate can be the best and worst thing students will experience in college. Roommates can be fun, helpful, encouraging and could possibly become a lifetime friend.
But what if they are the exact opposite?
It is inevitable that some students will end up with roommates that they are not compatible with. They could be too opposite or sometimes too similar to the point where it is impossible to live them.
So, what happens when roommates just do not get along?
What do should students do when they cannot stand the person they are forced to live with for the school year?
How do they cope with drama of dealing with something they can’t help?
“I just hate my roommate,” sophomore student of East Resident hall said. “She doesn’t clean up after herself and is always has other people in our room. When I go in my room and realize she isn’t there, it honestly makes me so happy to just get away from her.”
Of course confronting roommates who are always playing loud music when trying to do homework and never washes their sheets regularly is not easy.
Telling someone you do not want to live with them is the fastest way to hurt someone’s feelings.
Alex Petrongolo sees two solutions.
“If I had a serious problem with her, like if we fought nonstop or I found out she was stealing from me, then I would go to res-life and just request a new roommate,” Petrongolo said. “If it wasn’t that bad and we were just two different people with different friends then I would stick it out and just be in the room as little as possible.”
One thing to keep in mind is that roommates are temporary problems that seem like the end of the world, but in reality can be dealt with.
“You don’t have to sign a con- tract saying you have to live with this person for the rest of your lives,” Petrongolo said.
In hindsight, if a student really cannot stand the thought of spending any more time living with someone who drives them insane, just get a different roommate.
“If I know she steals my water bottles, even when I specifically asked her not to, and has her random friends touching my things all the time, I wouldn’t hesitate to tell her I couldn’t live with her anymore,” an East Res. student said. “It might get awkward around campus when we see each other, but if it’s something that’s really bothering me then I wouldn’t regret it.”
Roommates are a problem that does have a solution, even if that solution means offending a fellow classmate.
And if all else fails, just commute or live in a single.
