Learning to live with roommates is one of the hardest things to adjust to in college, especially your freshman year when you most likely don’t know who they are. You may hit it off the first day and become best friends, or you can be polar opposites. If you and your roommate are falling in more of the polar opposite range, don’t worry too much, there are so many ways to get to know each other and learn to appreciate your differences.
Living with other people requires communication and understanding. When someone is different from you, this can be hard. One of the best ways to start communicating with your roommate is to learn more about them. What are their interests? Where are they from? What was their high school experience like? These questions can bring up so many different topics and stories that you may even relate to! Once you start communicating with each other, then you will be able to understand them more.
Another important part of living with roommates is agreeing with each other. This can be especially hard when you have differences. One of the best ways to come to an agreement is to create and fill out a roommate agreement. This will cover all of the topics from cleaning, to noise levels, to guests allowed in the room. While completing this agreement together you will be able to hear each other out and hopefully find some peace among your differences.
My last piece of advice is to embrace your differences. You cannot change who someone is, so why try? Communicate with each other, learn about your differences, and sooner or later, they may not even bother you anymore! Living with a roommate teaches you so many life lessons, such as working around your differences.