Moving into college can be stressful, and even frightening. Over the span of only a few months, college freshmen are required to pick up their entire lives, move to a foreign location, and adjust to a new environment. With this adjustment comes with the major added stress of living with new people. Moving in with someone is a huge decision that will obviously influence your life from then on out, and new college students are supposed to make this decision in such a short period of time, often having no idea of what will lie ahead. Often, students will have their roommates selected for them by taking a very brief quiz and having the office of student housing select the people that you will be spending the next year (or maybe more), living with. Or, if you decide to venture into the admired students' Facebook page and choose someone for yourself, you'l probably have a few brief conversations with several people and then, based off of those few interactions, decide to move into a vey small space with this brand new person in your life. I was lucky enough to end up moving in with people that I can get along with, but moving in with strangers as opposed to living with my family has taught me some valuable lessons:
1. Passivity is never the answer.
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There's no safety net of parents or siblings if you forget to do your chores. Responsibility takes on a new level when you start living with people that you're not familiar with.
2. Consideration goes a long way![]()
Being mindful of the people you live with is so important. If you make a point not to wake them up at 7:30 in the morning banging around pans trying to make breakfast, chances are they'll return the favor.
3. Sometimes you have to share your snacks![]()
4. You don't have to be best friends with your roommate.
Ideally, everyone wants to be close with the person you live with. While this is a great concept and totally a thing that can happen, in most situations it's not the case. As long as you can be respectful of one another and make a small living space work for both of you, you're already ahead of the game. You don't have to be conjoined at the hip.
