Upon entering college, many students fear the struggles of living with a roommate. The stress of wondering whether or not you’ll get along was a factor that made me think I never wanted to go to college.
In my experience I had two roommates; the “good” roommate and the “bad” roommate.
The “good” roommate still remains to be one of my very good friends even after transferring to a different school.
The “bad” roommate was a nightmare. She seemed pretty decent on the phone, but once move-in day came I knew she would be a handful.
She arrived to our room first walking in with what seemed to be a thousand bags full of clothes. From then on I knew she would be a mess, and I was right.
I was nice and attempted to be friends, but surely as the weeks went on things got worse. All day she would lie in bed and watch television; at night she would sit at her computer, listen to music and take shots of cheap vodka. Obviously she rarely attended class.
I am pretty easy-going, but she always bothered me. I thought just avoiding her and not being in my room as much would take care of the problems.
I remember distinctively the night I knew I just could not live with her anymore. Her boyfriend came up from home, who in my opinion was a complete loser: not in school, no job or anything. Our agreement was that if we had someone over we would tell the other roommates. He came up and the “good” roommate and I were left in the dark.
We met him and hung out until they were getting a little too comfortable in her bed We left to go hang out in a friends’ room in our quad and after about two hours we heard screaming from the room. Lindsey and her boyfriend had gotten in a fight, nothing new. We heard something smash, him run out of the room and she immediately ran after him.
We both hurried into our room to see what happened. After a short investigation we found a gel deodorant that belonged to the “bad” roommate all over the wall, all over my brand new laptop, printer, desk and on the “good” roommates clothes. We were furious.
We immediately ran to our resident assistant and demanded to switch her room. After a meeting between the three of us, our RA, area coordinator the switch was made.
My advice to you is to compromise and communicate with you roommates before a situation as drastic as mine occurs. Residence life is willing to move a student’s room upon request two weeks after move-in day. Waiting the two weeks is important to get to know your roommates and be sure that you might not end up being friends with that person.
Give your roommate a chance but if you are not happy or not doing so well in school talk to your RA about moving to another room.
