As the school year begins, a lot of you are beginning to get to know your roommates, their habits and what you like or find annoying about them. I am in my junior year and so far, my streak with bad roommates has been two out of three. The worst one by far was my freshman year roommate, and that is a horror story in itself. So before I tell you some of my little tips to avoid an awful roommate experience, here is my story.
I had heard all of the horror stories and had even watched a movie about a psycho roommate right before my freshman year. (I do not recommend doing that a month before you move in with a random roommate). When I moved in, I was optimistic because despite all of the horror stories, I heard stories of roommates becoming best friends and doing everything together. Needless to say, I was hoping for the second scenario. Sadly, that year turned into the longest and most stressful year of my life.
The beginning of the year was smooth besides the change in school environments from high school to college. I was getting along with my roommate, and we were actually hanging out a lot. I thought maybe that year would be a really good one, but as soon as winter break was over and we all came back from the month long break, my roommate seemed to change.
It isn’t like I saw the change coming; there were gradual changes. Before winter break she barely hung out with me and went home every weekend to see her boyfriend and wouldn’t come back until Tuesday or Wednesday rolled around. That was nothing that compared to what happened after winter break.
My roommate, let’s call her Barb, would stay up for a matter of 4 hours, just enough time to go to classes. She would then come back to the room and lay on her futon and would fall asleep watching TV at any given time of the day. It got to the point where I couldn’t even listen to music quietly on my laptop. I couldn’t have friends over because she was sleeping. It wasn’t like she was staying up at all hours of the night, I barely even saw her leave the room. She didn’t talk to me, her side was a mess and I was confused. We were really good friends first semester, so what had changed? Did I say something wrong?
Freshman year had suddenly become so awful for me, I was calling home just wanting to go home. I couldn’t be in my room because she was in there, and I had even vented to my friends. I did my homework in the lounge and sometimes I even broke down crying because of the stress of the roommate. I was locked in my own thoughts, I didn’t speak up and I just let myself get stressed at every possible thing. I couldn’t even concentrate on finals because she was always watching tv and sleeping. I remember one moment specifically when I was looking for my headphones one morning so I could finish my studying, my music was playing softly and she looks up from her textbook and yells at me to put headphones in so she could cram 20 minutes of studying before her final.
It was an awful year and I could keep going on, but I want to tell you some things I learned from the experience so you don’t hate parts of your first year like I did. The most important advice I can give you is to speak up. Do not be afraid to say something, you are living there to and you want it to be the most comfortable experience for you. Another big thing is to not let your roommate walk all over you, that goes hand in hand with my first point.
College is a big step in your life, do not let it get weighed down with all the stress from other areas. Have a fun year, meet new people, get out of the room. And if you and your roommate do not get along,or aren’t best friends forever, that is fine, it isn’t the end of the world. You will meet so many memorable people out there, do not bog yourself down with one crappy person. Have fun, these are supposed to be the best, and considerably the most stressful years of your life.