hating your roommate

[WatchMeRise]

Thanks for the advice. Many of you have great insights and I appreciate all the answers. I also think maygyver is right as well. Maybe i'm fretting too much over the variables.

Many of you made the point about being straightforward, and it makes sense. Thanks for the advice.

More roommate stories are still welcomed, for humor's sake.


edit: I'm going to attend UC Santa Barbara. Hopefully they have a laid back housing setting (no front counter and such), I really don't want the secret service screening me and my guests as if looking for terrorists.

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[MossPoh]

Roommates are a mixed bag. I'm the king of bad luck with roommates, but on the other side, some of my best friends were random roomies. I've had alcoholic meth addicts, coke dealers, OCD and manic depressive violin majors with body odor, a guy that called me some nice hateful things and put a gun to my head, and people that never wanted to pay. I wish I could say all of those were strictly random but the sad fact is, some of them happened after I already knew them. The gun guy was my best friend.

The key is to not find someone you are best buddies with but rather someone that you are friends and don't mind each other in the dorm, but have your separate lives. Freshman year roommate wasn't bad for me. We'd play madden and go to the occasional party, but we also had a different network of friends. The funny thing is that the more I hate my roommate, the better my grades are. I never wanted to go home so all I did was sit in my office or special study area and crank away for hours.

People are weird. Regardless of how well you THINK you know somebody, living in close proximity changes everything. Your views of what is loud, clean, or punctual may differ from someone else. All sorts of crap happens when you move in. I wouldn't worry about "hating" someone. I'd just try to make sure there are defined rules for critical things that you both agree on. It will probably have to be some compromise, but it is best for both parties.

 

[FawninOverFauna]

What the CRAP, MossPoh, were those COLLEGE roomates?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I wasn't worried at all about roomates until I read this thread. Of course, where I'm going probably has very good roomates. *crosses fingers*

 

[Maygyver]

PS: Getting to like your roommates can be very helpful for when you start looking for apartments and you need someone to live with.

 

[DLi]

You know, I think I'll be the really bad roommate that you guys are complaining about.

 

[DrMattOglesby]

Thanks for the advice. Many of you have great insights and I appreciate all the answers. I also think maygyver is right as well. Maybe i'm fretting too much over the variables.

Many of you made the point about being straightforward, and it makes sense. Thanks for the advice.

More roommate stories are still welcomed, for humor's sake.


edit: I'm going to attend UC Santa Barbara. Hopefully they have a laid back housing setting (no front counter and such), I really don't want the secret service screening me and my guests as if looking for terrorists.

UCSB????? I say go for a place in Isla Vista! Quite possibly the coolest and most laid back college town I've ever been in

 

[ButImLETired]

Depending on how particular you are, you might want to live with a quiet person you can ignore easily. Freshman year I was in a triple with a bulimic/alcoholic and a spoiled, rich anorexic who only ate tofu and always bragged about the "famous musicians" she'd slept with. Her dad was an MD who had quit medicine and gone into consulting so he could make more money, and he made it a point to tell me how much he hated medicine whenever he came by to visit his darling daughter. Anyway, not a great experience.

Sophomore year I lived with an old friend from high school with whom I had no friends in common, who had an entirely different schedule from mine, and who was generally quiet. Best roommate ever. We ignored each other 99% of the time, our room was always a nice relaxing place, but we got along wonderfully when we did want to hang out. I didn't bug her, she didn't bug me. Great living situation for college.

Senior year (I'm skipping junior year cause it was a bit different) I lived with one of my best friends, and while for the most part it was fine, we eventually drove each other crazy and we never spoke again.

Now, this probably has more to do with my "particular" personality than anything else (so many of you would probably have better luck), but the point is, it's important to know whether you are a pretty easy person to live with or not, and whether you are really chill about other people's crazies or not. You might want to think you are, but you might not be. If you are pretty picky or get bugged by annoying things easily, live with the most predictable, quiet, easy-going person you can find. Trust me. Living with a best friend can be REALLY hit or miss.

 

[MossPoh]

What the CRAP, MossPoh, were those COLLEGE roomates?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I wasn't worried at all about roomates until I read this thread. Of course, where I'm going probably has very good roomates. *crosses fingers*

I've had good ones too that I'm best friends with, but yes, college roommates. The biggest piece of advice I can give is to never room with your best friend. The only thing that can happen is a ruined friendship or status quo. I'm notoriously unlucky.

 

[tennisball80]

Come on... Just chill...

I've lived with various people in the same house. Just smile, be nice, just chill with them. I didn't have any problem with living various types of people.

Just say, "Yo dude, what's up" "How is your day" "How are you" "I like it.." "That's nice.."... will be fine.

If a person is noizy at night, just talk about the issue. Nothing complecated in my opinion..

 

[ButImLETired]

Come on... Just chill...

I've lived with various people in the same house. Just smile, be nice, just chill with them. I didn't have any problem with living various types of people.

Just say, "Yo dude, what's up" "How is your day" "How are you" "I like it.." "That's nice.."... will be fine.

If a person is noizy at night, just talk about the issue. Nothing complecated in my opinion..

Hehehe I want you to come back and read this post after living with someone in your room and sharing a bathroom with tons of rather gross freshmen. I agree, I can share a house with most people too and only see them once in a while in common areas. Hell, I have lived in a house full of guys where I was the only girl, and it was really fun.

However, freshman year is truly a different experience. You're sharing a very small space with a total stranger who might make disgusting food in the microwave and make the fire alarm go off, or come home drunk every saturday night and throw up in his bed so you'll have to take care of him and make sure he's breathing throughout the night, or someone with a psycho girlfriend who's always there when you're trying to study, or who has sex in the bed above/below/next to yours if not IN your bed....and I'm not even mentioning the kind of disasters that can occur on a friday or saturday night in a freshman dorm bathroom. People are WEIRD. One of my best friends' room was broken into while she was sleeping by this totally nice normal girl who happened to sleep-walk and who broke my friend's mirror at 3 am and had no recollection of it the next morning. Another one of my friends was stalked for a couple of weeks by this total nutjob in our dorm. I had a guy who would hide in my room while I went to take a shower hoping I'd walk in and take off the towel without seeing him.

This isn't stuff I'm making up. It's all real, down to the kid who blew up a pop-tart in his microwave and set off the sprinkler system, destroying his roommate's laptop.

Experience that stuff, and then tell me that you should just "chill" and say "how are you".

 

[WatchMeRise]

Experience that stuff, and then tell me that you should just "chill" and say "how are you".

nice post.
i'm pretty sure many of us will have negative stories to tell, but i guess it's positive to go through them as well. you learn to live with others, and perhaps even make yourself a good roommate. i'm looking forward to it all. sorta.

 

[bkz]

It's all real, down to the kid who blew up a pop-tart in his microwave and set off the sprinkler system, destroying his roommate's laptop.

I'm sorry but how does anyone screw up pop tarts? Why was he microwaving it instead of toasting it anyway? Good stuff, sounds like we had similar experiences LOL

 

[ButImLETired]

nice post.
i'm pretty sure many of us will have negative stories to tell, but i guess it's positive to go through them as well. you learn to live with others, and perhaps even make yourself a good roommate. i'm looking forward to it all. sorta.

Yeah, I mean, it all sounds rather alarming, but for the most part it's pretty hilarious. You realize how weird people are, and learn to live with total strangers and put up with their crazies. That's actually an extremely useful life skill. And you'll always have that friend to whom you can go and whine about your psycho roommate or that nasty kid down the hall, and you'll share war stories over breakfast, and it's fun. It's part of college, honestly. Probably one of the most fun parts. You just have to appreciate the absurd and not take it all too seriously.

 

[chessknt]

I'm sorry but how does anyone screw up pop tarts? Why was he microwaving it instead of toasting it anyway? Good stuff, sounds like we had similar experiences LOL

I had to stop someone from putting a frozen pizza in the oven with the cardboard still underneath it.... Youd be surprised at how low reading comprehension is, even in highly regarded schools.

 

[ButImLETired]

I'm sorry but how does anyone screw up pop tarts? Why was he microwaving it instead of toasting it anyway? Good stuff, sounds like we had similar experiences LOL

Hahaha I have NO idea. This was a brand new dorm, too, so it ruined allllll the brand new pretty furnishings. The resident director was purple with rage when he saw what had happened.

You guys will discover that there are many, many ways to be so bad at cooking that you make the fire alarm go off. I don't really get it either, but...