Roommate Issues
Written by: Maddie Moore
I got really lucky with my roommate. We get along great and really love each other, which helps a lot when you have to live with someone for a year. My suite mate, however, has a different story. She did not get as lucky as me. Her issues have spilled over and have become our issues. I do not want to divulge any information but all I can say is that it has to do with an animal. I am here to help you deal with tricky roommate situations.
Step one is you need to talk to your roommates. If there is a problem you need to talk it out. You can’t be mad at someone if they don’t know that you’re mad. In order to do this you need to have an open discussion and talk about the complaints and try to find a way to resolve them. If you have a problem with cleanliness, create a chores chart for everyone where the job switches once a week. If it’s a problem with sleep time, create a time where you are allowed to have the light on in the room before it’s bedtime. If you try this and none of this works then it’s time for step two.
Step two is talking to your R.A.’s. If you are ever in a bind talk to your R.A.’s. They are there to help you and I can not stress this enough. I have become really close with my R.A.’s because of this problem. If I ever need something I just knock on their door and they help me find a solution to help with my problem. When we knocked on their door this time we decided we needed a mediation to help resolve our conflict, then we chose a date and time to have it. We all sat in a circle in our dorm and talked about our problem and what we were going to do in order to fix it. In doing this it created a safe environment for us to be able to openly discuss our issues and find resolutions in order to help us. We re-wrote our roommate agreement and went over every little detail with them.
After doing this we had to stick to the chores we had given ourselves and see if the situation would improve. In the end we needed a higher up to help us. Overall these steps helped me with my situation and it created a dialogue between us that made me feel comfortable.