Having a roommate is like having a permanent buddy that is always down for Netflix binges and 2 a.m. Tacobell runs. Having a roommate is also like having a brand new sibling — only you can’t hit, yell at or tell on this one.
Many college students change their homes year after year. Some find the perfect roommates and never want to leave their side, while others can’t seem to get along with anybody. Living with the right roommates can make the four years of college the best time of your life but living with the wrong roommates could make those years hell.
Before coming to college many students have only lived with family and have never had to learn how other people live. Entering the residence halls freshman year is a very eye-opening experience that is different for everyone. While some find their lifelong best friends in the dorms, others often don’t make connections and feel ostracized.
After sharing a bathroom with 40 strangers for a year, most students leave the residence halls to go out and live with friends. This is when you will find out that being friends and being roommates are in completely separate leagues.
With your friends, you think you know every bizarre thing about them. With roommates, you actually do know every bizarre thing about them. Picture it like this: For any quirky mannerisms you see in your friend, imagine their personality on steriods and that is how it will be after you become roommates. There will be times where they annoy you beyond reason, but there will also be times when you couldn’t imagine living with anyone else.
In the early days of living together there must be a balance in the house. However, don’t be overzealous or too friendly right away. You will start out loving each other, but it is easy to get too close too fast, making everyone sick of each other after just a few months. This could cause great friendships to dissipate.
You want to be able to be yourselves and be completely comfortable with each other. Once comfortable, people tend to let their guard down and that is when things can get messy. It only takes one nasty comment for your trust to be lost and to remind your roommate that they have really only known you for less than a year.
Everyone has pet peeves that can completely set them off at any time and when living with a roommate you find out just how many pet peeves you really have. When your rooms are less than 20 feet away from each other every laugh, fart and scream can be heard from anywhere. You may not think that they can hear you and your significant other through the walls at night, but they can.
Your roommates will often keep you up at night, make messes you don’t want to look at and probably steal some of your favorite foods. You must remember that you will also cause all these same problems for them no matter how hard you try not to, which is why it is important for everyone to be flexible and willing to compromise. The way roommates handle conflicts can have a huge impact on their relationship as a whole.
If you are worried about roommates over stepping their boundaries, then make sure you set those boundaries early. When roommates don’t discuss their issues, they don’t realize they are upsetting each other.
Letting something upset you for months and then snapping at your roommate one drunken night is going to make things awkward for everyone. It is not a bad idea to sit down as a house once everyone is moved in and talk about everyone’s expectations for the year.
It is important to try and make it work with roommates because we all need someone to get through college with. And who better than your live-in best friend?