Going
to college can be very scary; it’s an exciting time with so much change. If you’re lucky you might have a few friends
to lean on or maybe you’ve met the perfect roommate online! In some cases, like
mine, you might encounter a roommate from Hell, and in this case your freshman
year becomes the ultimate test. Last
year, not only was I moving to New York from the South, but I also didn’t know
a single person.
My
school also wouldn’t let me pick my roommate, they assigned a girl to me after
asking me what time I go to bed, what time I wake up, and how clean I am
(definitely not enough questions to know about personalities and possible
issues!) We spoke on the phone, then met at move in, and things were fine for
the first few weeks. But as classes
started and schedules were set, she didn’t seem to understand that class was
something people went to college to attend.
The smallest things I did would make her mad, like if I was drying my
hair for class or reading over homework assignments before bed. It was a very difficult time. I would call my mom about the latest problem
and I was considering moving into a different dorm. It wasn’t necessarily that she was a horrible
person; I just don’t think she knew how to live with someone else.
Luckily,
things worked out for the best, second semester my suitemate ended up switching
places with her and the year was so much better! My suitemate (second semester roommate)
was great and I really enjoyed living with her (though honestly anything was
better than the alternative!) Dealing with my first semester roommate taught me
a lot about patience and compromise. If
you have to live with a random roommate freshman year there is a chance it
could work out well, I know several people who loved their roommates! But if you
end up living with someone challenging, here are some ideas
- Talk it Out - You never know what someone is going through, there might be some underlying issues there and the best thing you can do is talk it out. If your roommate is staying up all-night and sleeping all day ask her if there is an alternative. Try to work out an agreement that makes both of you happy and understand that you both have lives and things to do. Living with another person, especially a stranger is all about compromise. The worst thing you can do is ignore it and pretend everything is fine.
- Plan - Make a plan in the beginning of the year to clean each respective side of the room and figure out a bathroom cleaning and trash disposal system. No one likes being the only one doing the work so figure this out first thing, that way no one is faced with all of the chores when the room is disgusting.
- Invest in Fabreeze - When someone doesn’t wash their sheets, towels, or clothes a crate of air freshener should do the trick, it’s better than wasting you expensive perfume to mask the smell.
- Hide Your Things - This sounds crazy, I know, but it turned out being SO TRUE. Someone told me move in day to hide toilet paper, tampons, other toiletries and little things and I thought she was crazy! Turns out my roommate would “borrow” all of the above and more, pens and pencils, scissors, packs of post-its, tampons, toilet paper, etc… You name it, she took it. I like to believe she took them in an emergency and just forgot about it, but maybe we won’t give her the benefit of the doubt. Long story short, get a container for under your bed and put your things in it. You’ll be glad you did when someone forgets to change the toilet paper and you’re almost stranded.
- Push Her In Front of a Cab - wait… what?
♥ Caro
No comments:
Post a Comment