Maybe living with our parents and sharing a room with our darling sibling wasn’t so bad after all. These were the days before we entered the wonderful world of college; we all remember it, the first days of freshmen year, walking down the grimy halls of Creswell, Russell, or Brumby, with all our belongings in tow. There was a mixture of emotions ranging from “FREEDOM!” to “Mommy please don’t leave me” as we entered our 12×12 rectangular boxes comparable to a prison cell. Whether we knew our roommate or not, a wave of nervousness swept over us as we prepared to embark on our first year of college. Below is just a sprinkling of some “horror stories”, which will either take you back or become thankful that your year in the dorm wasn’t half as bad.
Talk About Peculiar…
“My roommate talks to her hermit crabs, the television, the internet, and to herself. She also talks in her sleep at 6 in the morning in Polish, French, and English, often asking her boyfriend to come over for sex,” says Lisa, a freshman. “She is insistent on 8 or 9 AM classes, which she cannot wake up for so I have to wake her up so she’ll turn off her alarm. Not to mention, the room always reeks of McDonalds from her frequent trips. As if this isn’t enough, the best part is there’s mold growing in the grout on her side of the room.”
Anyone Want a Snuggle Buddy?
“Freshman year, my roommate decided on one very drunk night that it would be fun to bring a guy back to the room to hook up with,” told Abbey, 20, and a sophomore. “Little did she know that I was asleep in the bed next to her. Even after she saw me she continued to have the guy up to her bed and start having sex! I woke up to her audible moaning and rhythmic rocking of her bed. Our relationship has seriously never been the same since and that was over a year ago. What a great roommate.”
Three’s A Crowd
“Long story short, because of overcrowding my freshmen year, I was forced to room with three girls in a double occupancy room. One roommate I knew while the other was totally random. The over-crowded feelings soon set in and things quickly turned hostile. Ultimately, I decided to move out,” stated second-year student, Kelsey.
“When I moved to my new room, my new roommate was Eleanor, a six-foot tall, volleyball player, with a spikey blonde Mohawk and a smattering of colorful tattoos. Luckily, she was rarely around because she tended to sleep at her boyfriend’s off-campus house. When she did return, it was just to smoke pot or to deposit dirty clothes in exchange for some clean ones. Her side of the room was completely barren, except for a sheet on the bed and a ton of lotions for her sweet tats. But, when volleyball season started up in the spring, things changed. I had never really had a conversation with Eleanor and the smell of her dirty volleyball clothes drove me insane. Friends would no longer come into my room because of the ‘feet’ smell that radiated from my room, made worse by the fact that she rarely did laundry. The dirty clothes piled up quickly, and I was left to deal with their stench. Needless to say, once the spring semester ended, I was eager to head home for the summer and leave my old roommates behind…all three of them.”
Ultimately, living with any roommate, whether you know them well or not, is a large transition, especially during the first year of college. There are bound to be issues, minor and catastrophic, comical and ridiculous. But for pesky problems that still persist, how do you deal?
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Find friends to escape to — minimizing the amount of time that you’re in your room can ease the tension between you and a disgruntled roommate. Plus, the first year is the most opportune time to meet others who might be in the same bind. - Try not to let small things bother you. Sometimes we let the smallest infractions implode into unneeded conflict. If an argument does happen, try to let things settle and give yourself time to think before confronting your roommate full steam ahead.
- Talk to your roommate about the issues you’re having. Maybe she is feeling the same way about the situation and you can work out an agreement (whether it’s unwanted visitors, uneven distribution of shared items, etc.). Usually an RA can help facilitate this.
- If all else fails, request a room transfer and move out. Sometimes, reconciliation is simply not possible and if it is early in the year, you could still have time to click with a potentially great girl. Living with a roommate should be a fun experience, and there’s no need for petty tension or added anxiety.
Do you have any terrible or hysterical freshman dorm stories? Or did your roommate and you end up becoming great friends? Let us know below!