On residential campuses, unlike classrooms, most of the time is spent in our rooms. When we are away from our home, we try to make our room as homely as possible by arranging our teddies, favorite photos, candles, calendars and what not. Amongst all this, one of the most important part is played by our roommate, who becomes our homie, officially and unofficially the part of our family on campus. S/he becomes our bitching partner, crime partner, our savior, and at times our Mom. The bond shared with a roommate is always unique, even though you have other friends on campus. There are always some things which remain only a part of your conversation. However, this happens only when you share a good rapport with your roommate. To share a good bond with your roommate, first of all, you need to choose a good one. This article will explore the topic of how you should you choose your roommate to have an amazing college life experience.
1. You should share some living habits
The first and foremost thing which needs to coordinate between roommates is their living habits. If one between the two prefers to sleep early and one prefers to sleep late or if one prefers to keep the room and the other prefers to keep it messy, it is going to be difficult. You will never feel like staying in the room, if your habits are opposite with that of your roommate. To make your room experience full of fun and life, you should make sure your living habits match with your roommate.
2. You should share a good bond with the person
The next thing which matters the most is the type of bond you share with your roomie. It gets always easy and comfortable to live with them if you share a friendly bond. After all, they are the ones, to whom you return after having a long day in classes. Before choosing whom to room with, make sure you can communicate things clearly with your roommate and share a good bond.
3. S/he should be understanding
As mentioned before, your roommate is the one to who you return after a tiring day, so it is necessary that your roommate is understandable. There are times when you cannot share things even with your best friends. At these times, you should have a non-judgmental and understanding roommate who listens to you calmly and understands what you are going through.
4. S/he should not mind sharing
There are times, when you run out of your stationary, food, shampoo, toothpaste and so on. At such times, there is one and only savior, i.e. your roommate. As you live together for most of the times, it becomes necessary to share things with each other. So, before you decide who to room with, check if s/he is sharing, so that you don’t have to run on the entire floor to ask out for toothpaste!
5. S/he should respect your privacy
Even though you share a good bond with your roommate and are friendly enough to share everything with them, there are times when you have a bad day and do not feel like talking to anyone. At such times, your roommate should be understanding enough to let you sit for some time and relax. S/he should not trespass the line you created around yourself, and should respect your privacy.
6. Roommates should divide responsibilities
As mentioned earlier, when you live away from your home, your room becomes your room and your roommate becomes your homie. With home, come responsibilities. So it becomes necessary for you and roommate to share responsibilities like cleaning the room, giving laundry, collecting it back, and keeping stuff at proper places. Thus, make sure your roommate is willing to share the housekeeping responsibilities with you.
7. You should be willing to compromise
Even though we like to keep certain things at certain places, love to sleep on a particular side of the bed or want the temperature of the room to be according to us or throw a party on Thursday, there are times when we have to compromise. You and your roommate should be understanding enough to compromise certain things at certain points of time. For example, if one of you is having an exam next day, the other should understand not to throw a party on the previous day.
8. Be honest with each other
After such a long list of rules, the last thing which can be expected from a roommate is honesty. S/he is the one with whom you live throughout your hostel life, so it is necessary for your roommate to be honest, if s/he doesn’t like any of your habits or any other thing, s/he should be honest enough to tell you that. Being honest makes thing easier and it lets you live a peaceful life in your room!
To experience a peaceful and fun life at the hostel, make sure you have a good roommate and you share a good rapport with them, as this will make your college life happier and livelier. Follow the above set of ground rules and ensure your roommate also does the same and have an amazing hostel life!
Edited by Priyanka Shankar