Just when you thought people chanting “POP THAT TRUNK” was the worst part of your move-in experience, comes sharing a dorm or suite with your roommates for the next eight months. While some people may get lucky with an amazing roommate, this edition of Carleton Confessionals features the unnamed few who didn’t.
Bed Indents
“My roommate in first-year used to turn the lights on when I used to sleep and leave the room. He waited ’till I fell asleep to spray a f*** ton of Febreeze throughout the room. He used to FaceTime his girl every night ’till 4:00 – 5:00 am without headphones. This dude had the audacity to play it out loud on his speakers the whole night.
“I questioned him about it once and he said, “It’s my room too and I have the right to do what I want as well, if you have a problem about it, complain to the residence office.” He had some sort of hate towards me, I’m not even sure why.
“I stayed in Lanark in first-year and we had a shared washroom with the room next door that only locked from the outside to keep the neighbours from coming into your room. I went to use the washroom five minutes before walking to my exam and my roommate locked me in. I even heard it and yelled for him to open the door but I heard him walk out. He knew I had an exam as well so I know that he did it on purpose. I had to call my friends to get the RF to get the key from res-comms and let me out.
“The last straw, however, was in second semester when he approached me and asked me if I had sat on his bed. I hadn’t but this guy went to the residence manager and (I s*** you not) said: “He indented my bed.” Me and the residence manager couldn’t keep a straight face.
“I knew bulls**t like this would continue throughout the year and I was scared for my safety. So I decided with the consent of the residence manager that I would buy a blow-up mattress and live in my friend’s dorm for the rest of the semester.”
~Class of 2023
When you’re the problem and still go to residence manager for problems>>>
Fruit Salad
“It was reading week, and she left her fruit salad in the sink for a week refusing to clean it up when we came back.”
~Class of 2022
Do people still eat fruit salad???
Cocaine Chaos
“I was in a two-bedroom unit just off-campus. I had taken over a lease and my mate and I got along amazingly. When she left, a couple moved into the large bedroom. At the time, I had a full set of courses, was working a full-time job and was involved in volunteer work. Due to that, I would never be at the apartment aside from sleeping, and personal hygiene.
“Every time I walked in the chaos got worse, from dishes, laundry, trash, recycling, and smoke smells, I had enough. They expected me to do half of the cleaning – I did clean up after myself – and were constantly fighting. Throughout the night I could hear Jane Doe screaming and hitting John Doe, doors slamming, kitchen drawers were broken, while gaslighting me each time, and even calling me to let me know of a suicide attempt to guilt-trip me into letting Jane Doe staying longer. Jane Doe had been cheating on John Doe with the building super for favours.
“One day while I was cleaning the bathroom, I found cocaine! We had a strict no-drugs-or-smoking rule. Not only was the smoking getting worse but this was insane. I found cocaine several more times before kicking her out – she wasn’t on the lease, thankfully I didn’t trust her at the time – I had the locks changed but she came back unannounced to get her stuff so I called the police when her two friends threatened me. She had stolen furniture, electronics, personal information and other items before I got home and ran into them.
“I attempted to send a letter to request the funds but was told to go f*** myself and had to repair the damage done, and replace everything that was stolen. When I sent a second email stating I intended to take legal action she called me saying she would retaliate by claiming I touched her – she was absolutely disgusting but I was struggling to pay rent and food – let alone have any time or money to get a lawyer and file for defamation.
“After two years of no contact from blocking her and moving addresses, I’m able to happily say that John Doe and I are good friends, I went to therapy for my trust issues, I now have security cameras, and live in my own apartment. I will never consider a roommate again. I document everything in case someone acts in bad faith.”
~Class of 2024
Is your jaw dropped? Cause this story is literally insane. If I found my roommate’s cocaine I would be livid, maybe sprinkle it on her popcorn, idk.
Roommate Turned Robber
“The entire time this guy lived with us was a complete disaster. He wouldn’t stop bringing random people into the house even though we all told him to stop every day. He would play EDM at 6:00 am loud enough that our next-door neighbours could hear him. He also lost or broke so much stuff: cups, plates, headphones. He also never paid rent on time. Then after he moved out he refused to give his keys back. He then came in randomly and robbed the house.”
~Class of 2023
Stealing from student housing is just sad, what are you looking for? A tapestry or a Canadian Tire cooking set?
Birthday Wish
“I moved into a dorm freshman year with my best friend. I always knew which university I was going to, it’s the only place I applied, but last minute she decided she would be going too and begged me to room with her, and I didn’t know how to say no. Within a week we started getting into arguments.
“I had early classes and she would like to stay up late doing work. My bed was right beside her desk and I would end up being woken up by her studying despite having earplugs. I eventually explained that I was lashing out from being tired and didn’t want to keep that up and instead fix the problem. I suggested moving our furniture and reconfiguring the room to suit us. She said that she didn’t want to.
“The day before my birthday I pulled her aside before she went to the library and explained to her for the fifth time I was really struggling and had thought out five different ways that I had figured out with my parents to move the room around that would suit me, and that she could pick whichever one she wanted or if she had other suggestions I would be open to that too and would do all the heavy lifting myself. She told me that since I wanted to live in this building she got to choose how the furniture was and that she wanted to keep it as is.
“Keep in mind that we didn’t get to choose our building and it was pure luck we ended up in the one I wanted. She went to the library and I decided that as long as I didn’t touch anything of hers then I could do whatever I wanted with my furniture. When she came back into the room after midnight she started screaming at me for moving the furniture, she left the room and started telling people on our floor that I was touching her stuff and having a psychotic break. I told her that it was officially my birthday and this was my present to myself. She told me it was her birthday in two weeks and that her present would be moving my furniture back.”
~Class of 2023
Honestly, smart of them to wait until their birthday to make the changes.
Twin Terrors
“I was in a suite with a pair of twins. For various reasons, my roommate moved out partway through the year so at the end of the year it was just the three of us. They left the day before I did but I was busy doing exams until the last day. I woke up the morning of move-out to find the entire suite (except my room) a complete disaster. There was food, dishes and a mess in the kitchen, abandoned belongings and holes in the wall in their room, and hair all over the bathroom floor.
“I panicked and showed up at my RF’s door crying, afraid I would get stuck with the clean-up fee as I was the last to leave. My RF’s helped me clean up as best we could (including throwing out/donating the things left behind and mopping the floors) and assured me that I wouldn’t be charged. The RF’s were angels, the roommates… well, they’re stuck with each other I guess.”
~Class of 2022
That’s one way to end being roommates and a friendship tbh.
New Yogurt Flavor
“My first year roommate left me a sticky note on the mini fridge telling me not to touch her ecstasy that she was storing in there which she conveniently placed on top of my yogurt.”
~Class of 2020
Sounds like a safe spot to put ecstasy but, what do I know.
Feline Fiasco
“My roommate seemed super nice at first so we allowed her to move in with us. At first, it was fine, she was quiet and stayed in her room a lot. That quickly changed when she started smoking in the house and would SCREAM and cry at the top of her lungs while on the phone with someone.
“Of course, at first, we felt bad for her, told her if she needed anything that we were here but this became a regular occurrence whether that be at 8:00 am or throughout the night, it didn’t matter. She also would have friends over and would talk super loud (my friend’s room was located upstairs and she could hear her clear as day with the TV on and fan running). She had the cutest cat but would never take care of her so we had to (which was fine I have a cat myself but it became so bad that we started having to buy food for both her cat and mine).
“We asked her to clean the washroom and only the washroom since she said she didn’t mind doing that and she was mainly in her room. We offered to clean the rest of the house. She couldn’t even do that. It was brutal, she did not care once or ever about the rest of us in the house and would constantly have her friends over and play loud music or scream talk in the middle of the night. She didn’t work so she was literally always home which became a real struggle with everything online.”
~Class of 2021
They all start out nice and quiet till they dump their cat on you.
Sticky Fingers
“My roommate always stole my stuff, whether it was my toothpaste or shampoo or even SKINCARE products…. I even caught her coming back from class wearing my jacket without my permission. 😤 Let’s just say she was an absolute klepto and a nightmare as she would even stay up on ft with her friends till 3:00 am 🥲.”
~Class of 2021
Sisters by chance, friends by choice.
Cliquebaiting
“Omg where to start… In second year, myself and five other girls rented a six-bedroom apartment in Centretown. I knew it wasn’t going to go perfect because… duh? But they had wild expectations. From forming little cliques, where they thought they were above me and some others because they were “so nice”… Meaning they avoided conflict and talked about us behind our backs… to announcing each time they finished a chore to show their superiority.
“One night, a roommate let a boy I barely know sleep in my room while I was away, and another night had a huge pre-drink the night before one of my exams. So many crazy things happened that year, I was so thankful to have a few extracurriculars and a part-time job to keep away from the drama!”
~Class of 2018
Honestly, sometimes you just gotta make a chore board like summer camp and call it a day.
To end off, here is a submission I wish weren’t true because it could be a plot of a bullying movie shown at a high school assembly.
Chanelle’s IRL
“In first year, I lived in a suit with three other people. We each had our own bedrooms and shared a kitchen, washroom and living space. Things started off pretty typical, we drank way too much and partied way too hard for the first two days after we moved in – and of course, got into fights about who was to blame when campus security came to shut down our res parties. On the third day of living together, one of my roommates took a picture of me when I wasn’t looking and put it on their Snapchat story with the caption “I hate my roommate”. Was this a joke, sarcasm? Or was this a red flag?
“A few days later, while I was in class one day my roommates put a poster on the outside of our door facing our res hallway. The poster was a “kills chart” with all of our names and tallies of how many people we had all slept with, except my name had a solid 50 tallies which was not accurate. I really don’t believe that the number of people someone has slept with matters at all, but this seemed like their intent was to upset or embarrass me.
“They continued to just be sh*** people for about a month. They made an Instagram account (which I was blocked from) that the three of them ran where they would post pictures of me (making fun of me for the way I look, or anything else they could think of), they would post pictures of my boyfriend (who they had only met once and didn’t even live in Ottawa, they would literally just take screenshots off of mine and his Instagram to repost and make fun of) and they had multiple pictures making fun of multiple other people who lived on our floor. They constantly talked s*** to my face, and to each other while in the same room as me and acting as if I wasn’t there. They called me the R-word, stupid, dumb etc. all the time and made fun of my learning disabilities. They even explicitly said that they admired the Chanelle’s from screen queens and were trying to be like them in the way they acted towards me.
“I spent most of my time with the two guys who lived across the hall from us and I would confide in them about all the shit my roommates did to me. I literally cried to those boys and they were my rocks to get me through all the bullshit. Everything really blew up one night when my three roommates came home drunk and before getting into our room, the two guys across the hall came out of their room and called my roommates out for how they had been treating me. This really pissed my roommates off so they came storming into our suit, started banging on my bedroom door and the surrounding walls while yelling horrible things at me, threatening to beat me up, and telling me to come out and fight them. People from down the hall heard all of the yelling and called our res fellow, who came in with some people who worked higher up in housing services and they verbally deescalated the situation.
“After this, housing met with all of us and decided to open an investigation of some sort. They offered to move me into a new room, but I didn’t want to leave my room or all my floormates. So instead they moved me to a temporary room in the basement of Glengary for about a week while they gathered all the information about my roommate situation.
“The girls tweeted pictures of notes they left on my room calling me names and making threats after the investigation had started, making fun of how stupid housing was for buying their story about the notes just being an innocent joke. After that I took screenshots of the tweets and sent them to housing services. The very next day my roommates were removed from my suit, placed each in separate res rooms in different buildings, and given instructions not to contact/come near me and that they were not allowed in my res building. I moved back into my room, got great new roommates and moved on with my life.
I’ve bumped into all three of them at bars and clubs since we went our separate ways. Two out of the three roommates have drunkenly apologized profusely, saying they regret ever being so awful to me and blaming everything on one of the others. When I saw the third girl, she just glared at me across a bar and made a point to “accidentally” shoulder check me….. two out of three isn’t bad though, I’ll take it. “
Thank you so much everyone for your submissions, I sincerely hope you have since recovered and don’t have too many trust issues. To any first years, make sure you communicate and keep in mind not everyone is awful! The next confessional is just in time for spooky season, share your scary stories here!
See you in the quad.
Xoxo,
-CC