Growing up I have always been a borderline child between extrovert and an introvert. As an energetic, people person, I always needed my alone time to recharge for social events. I don’t quite understand people who can go non-stop socializing without breaks. If I have to spend more than two days with the same people without time to myself, I might actually pull a 2007 Britney Spears and smack someone with an umbrella. It’s hard being an extroverted introvert, or “ambivert” as some call it, when living with others. Sometimes you’re alone time feels like you’re not on your best socializing behavior in front of them and sometimes personalities clash. I had the perfect vision of having my first college apartment with my roommates. Late night Domino’s delivery, middle of the week wine night with the roommates and frequent trips to the local frozen yogurt shop. And while all of these activities are fun and true, there are a lot of things I did not expect. Here are the following things you will love and hate about college roommates.
Arriving home at 7 p.m. after staring at Facebook memes in the library can be exhausting. For me, there was nothing better than getting home to one of my roommates having an entire tub of ice cream for dinner whilst watching Grey’s Anatomy. To be honest, nothing can compare to the comforting feeling of procrastinating your hours of work with someone else. Alone it’s just kind of sad and disappointing to your parents really.
With an apartment run by four 20 something year-olds there needs to be some sort of order with the chore system. Otherwise how do you keep your 4 bedroom apartment from looking like SAE’s house after a darty? People tend to slack off on their chores and what happens when someone isn’t pulling their weight? Well I’ll tell you, people get pissed off. It starts out quite mellow, you’ll receive a picture in the college roommates group chat of a dirty dish in the sink with the caption “guys please clean up after yourselves.” You’ll all reply “will do!” followed by an apology or two. Then fast forward to week 12 and you’re getting a text reading, “honestly guys I am BEGGING you,” accompanied by a picture of a Nutella stained spoon that someone decided was clean enough to put back in the silverware drawer. At this point you’re lucky if you get one “ok” as a reply. Most likely everyone will leave your text on read and then four hours later someone will text – “it’s hot AF turn up the AC”.
When you lived in your dorm you were very careful with sneaking alcohol into your room in case your RA was near to rat you out. Also, let’s be honest, drinking wine with your college roommates on your couch whilst eating a pizza and watching friends can never be topped by you and your buddy chugging wine on your dorm’s rug floor. It’s just so much cooler, and honestly nights like these are 94% of the reason why I wanted to go to college. The best part is there’s no parent there to prevent you from doing it. Also the worst part: no one can tell you that you can’t do it. It is a blast but it may get in the way of the 12-page research paper that you have not started…It’s still a great way to relieve stress!
People start getting on each other’s nerves ESPECIALLY when multiple girls are all under the same roof. Your roommate may not have even done anything but somehow they manage to get under your skin. Maybe it’s the way they laugh at an excessively loud volume whilst watching vine compilations in their room. Maybe your eye twitches when they open the fridge every two minutes followed by a heaved sigh. Maybe you can’t stand the fact that they drag their feet all around the damn house. Either way, it’s natural to get a little bit irritated at your roommates, and such emotions are bound to arise when you see each other almost 24/7. What’s important is that you keep your cool and communicate with them. Take breaks from spending so much time in your apartment, hit up your local coffee shop so that your roommate can laugh her heart out at Vines in peace. Catch up with other friends outside your apartment so you can actually start MISSING your college roommates. The problem is when you only interact with your roommates you will get fed up with them, no matter how cool you are. Remind yourself to take breaks from them and have time to yourself. Don’t worry that your friendships aren’t the same as before, you’re now more like family than just friends given the fact that you are living with them.
At the end of the day, the good things far outweigh the bad things even though you may not remember this all the time. You’re roommates and you may bicker but that doesn’t have to be detrimental to your friendship. College is the best time of your life and you will never forget the people who went through it with you, so try not to make things too serious and appreciate the great things that come with it.
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