Freshly eighteen, I gather my courage on a break from rushing and teeter in my high heels over to my new dorm room. My parents left yesterday, and I walk around wide-eyed like a baby fawn, unsure of this whole situation. I’ve been staying in my new room by myself for the past few nights, having arrived a week early to participate in rushing a sorority. My two roommates are yet to arrive. I’ve exchanged emails with them, including the perfunctory name, home town, random hobbies— but I don’t know these girls at all. I don’t know what to except and I don’t have the slightest clue what I’m walking into, knowing only a few tidbits I could gather from Facebook. I’m just hoping for the best, really.
What I could’ve used in that moment is a pearly blue paperback book by Becky Simpson. It didn’t exist then, though.
Three years later, the book arrived in Her Campus FSU’s Back-to-School Survival Kit, much to my pleasure and ripe for the reading. Freshman-year-me would have loved the guidance, wisdom, wit and reassurance that Becky Simpson’s The Roommate Book offers. Senior-year-me still did.
Courtesy: Beckysimpson.co
After three years of being a roommate, I thought I had it down pat. Boy, did I have it wrong. The Roommate Book is an homage to the most spontaneous, transient, laugh-until-you-cry bonding moments you only have with your college roommates. It’s a friendship formed in a short span of time where we’re expected to become our own person, but as Simpson’s book can testify to, it becomes a bit more bearable when we have some great shoulders to lean on. Plus, some nifty pie charts breaking down a “Good Roommate at a Glance”— a section of The Roommate Book, help too.
What is there to say about this book? How do I summarize a book that got everything right?
I’ll start here: This book about, “sharing lives and slapping fives” (as the front cover promises) is just the right kind of pick-me-up.
Here’s a little background: the introduction had me laughing right off the bat, wanting to get in on this hair-extension mermaid situation in a way I had never before. As I sat writing this article, I was struck by the fact that I’m graduating this year. My days of college-based roommates are almost behind me. In a way, Becky Simpson’s book encompasses all the emotions I’m wading through in the most charming of ways. The Roommate Book is a hysterical, touching and personal look at the oddities that come along with being a roommate.
The funny thing is, it’s personal in nature because being another human’s roommate is a personal thing on so many levels. Simpson keeps it true to herself, while also keeping a, ‘can apply to all’ aspect to her book. Anybody can flip through these colorful pages and feel a sense of understanding because we’ve all been somebody’s roommate.
“Roommates Explained,” has to be the best opening chapter I’ve encountered. Simpson compiles a chart of the various roommates we find ourselves sharing living quarters with, and she does so with a wink in our direction. It’s like my best friend wrote a book and asked me to read it.
“The Three Steps to Success,” are currently being printed out en-masse and will be distributed to my friends because they’re the truth. To reach a level of roommate success, it’s important to follow Simpson’s rules. She tells us to stay chill. I seem to have forgotten how to do just that upon flipping to the last page of this book and wanting to immediately text her for more roommate/friend/life guidance. Becky Simpson is on a list of people that get me on another level. The Roommate Book is everything I’ve ever thought about in regards to wading through the murky water of living with strangers.
My take: this book should be passed out upon arriving at freshman orientation. I’ve heard horror stories about roommates, but luckily my roommates turned out to be a wonderful bunch of people over the years. This book is a gem, and offers up sage advice we should all take to heart; advice that freshman-year-me would’ve been happy to have. To anyone living with a total stranger, Becky Simpson shows us how to celebrate this time in our lives in the funniest and most endearing ways, so don’t miss out! I couldn’t be happier that this book arrived in our Back-to-School Survival Kit; it was just what I needed to remember the good times, and prepare me for my last-ever year as a roommate.