Sharing a Room with a Friend

The Housing University Department is supposed to match you and your roommate based on your interests. I knew, though, that it doesn't always work out; really, what they use to match you is a survey which is not very extensive so you end up getting dumped in a room with someone, and hopefully the two of you will get along. It's not really matching. So my best friend and I chose to live together.

It didn't work. Even though she'd been my best friend all through high school, it all changed once I started living with her. I saw her differently. First, she was a slob and she didn't care. Sometimes you can talk to people about things that are kinda bothering you so that maybe they can learn to get the dishes done before there is a mountain in the sink and make sure that the place doesn’t smell from the chicken juice in the rotting garbage. Other times you can't. And with her, you couldn't. But wait, as they say, there's more.

When you live with someone and overhear their conversations on a daily basis, you find out more than you want to. I hadn't realized that she's so shallow, and so stubbornly arrogant. She said that I never came home enough and didn't want her company. That was true. I didn't want to go home because I was sick of all the bullshit and drama. It got to me. I came to the reality that living with my best friend had changed my perception of her. That sucked, but not as much as having to continually put up with her.

Maybe it was wrong, but I decided to open the door and the window at all times even though she didn't like it, and let my music waft out. Maybe blast out. That way my friends came into the room and I hung out with them and she got mad and left.

My feeling now is that you should make the most of what you want to do and not worry too much about your roommate. It's your room too. Don't be disrespectful but you still can make the most of the situation.

And you can grow from being put with roommates who you don't have a lot in common with, so use the opportunity. For example, I've realized that I hate living in filth. I wasn't like that before as I was always a messy person and would just leave stuff for others to do. But now I can't stand when people leave their dishes in the sink and I hate studying in a messy room.

Another lesson: if you share a room with a friend, recognize the risk. You may lose the friendship. Now in my case, it's probably a good thing: she turned out not to be the kind of person I could really be a friend to. But it's true too that sharing a room with someone makes you hypersensitive to any annoyances the person might present to you.

So how did it end? Actually, for me, rather well. I was able to move in with my current roommate, who was previously stuck with a truly freaky person. Don't even start me talking about that one.

Now the annoying slob has her own room and so does the freak. Both their personalities are so passive that they are both afraid to decorate the other side of the room in case they get a roommate who won't like it. Their rooms look like jail cells. No one wants to move in. And maybe that's what they intended!

I'm beyond caring. Now, though, in a room with someone compatible, I can resume my life.