One of the biggest fears often surrounding the transition from high school to college is living with someone other than one's family. Often times people have the ability to choose roommates, typically choosing a close friend. However, in the circumstance that you may not have the ability to choose your roommate or you don't have a friend attending your university (as was the case with me), you may have an even greater sense of anxiety. Well, today I'm here to share some ways in which you can get to know your roommates and make some pretty great friends who will help you get through your freshman year of college.
These tips work for just a single roommate or all the members of a suite (my dorm consists of five of us total, and we all get along very nicely). So let's just jump into it and uncover some solid methods to befriending your roommates:
1. Interact with them right away.
First and foremost, you can't be afraid to interact with your roommates. Sure, it's a little weird that you're now living with a complete stranger (or four of them), but a simple hello and some small talk can really go a long way. Acknowledging your roommates and being open and receptive to their attempts at conversation is a great start to dissolving the awkwardness surrounding the new living situation.
2. Invite them to things and accept their invitations
Now, this tip actually applies to making friends in college in general, but it definitely has its place in being better friends with your roommates as well. Accepting invitations proposed by your roommates shows that you've grown more comfortable with them and you'd like to potentially be friends. Plus, if you continuously reject their invites, they'll just stop inviting you. May it be going to hang out somewhere, going out to get food, or playing a game, you'll find it really is the little things that will bring you and your roommates closer together.
3. Befriend their friends.
Making friends in college is a precarious task in itself, but your roommates can be an outlet for meeting new people. Again, greetings and small talk often go a long way when it comes to establishing relationships with people, and this can be applied to the friends your roommates have. This is not a foolproof method by any means as we often have certain types of people were more receptive to than others, but it isn't bad to consider either. Leaving yourself open to new interactions is the key to making new friends and, through that, becoming better friends with your roommates.
4. Buy some games for your place.
Games have a strange way of bringing people together, and this is a GREAT way to interact with your roommates. For my roommates and me, it started with video games. Well, I should say, for them, it started with video games as they all played together utilizing their consoles. I eventually found my way into it by also playing some of their games with them and being part of their "butterfly-effect" games in which we all formed a jury to make decisions. This eventually led to our two current favorites: UNO and Monopoly. I will warn that you may not want to start out with these two as they WILL cause frustration, but they are a fun way to hang with the roomies and you may find them to develop into a sort of tradition.
5. Have movie nights.
Just as games have a way of bringing people together, movies often act in the same manner. An easy way to open this idea up is to find out what movies your roommates haven't seen and vice versa. In my experience, because there were a lot of movies I hadn't seen that they really loved, it basically set itself up. Thanks to my roommates, I have now officially seen The Lord of the Rings trilogy along with The Dark Knight. We're currently going through a Star Wars phase but it goes to show you just what movies can do.
6. Food is (and I cannot say this enough) always a bonding material.
Food is always a foolproof option in making friends in your roommates, and that goes for just about everyone. I'm not even just referring to going out to eat together either. In my suite, we have now established a community table in which we all buy food for the rest of us to share. The most frequent of these items is Hawaiian Rolls, but other foods have included cookies, cake, candy, and wings. We also pitched in together to get food for the rather lackluster Super Bowl this year. Food brought us together, and it may be just as useful for you and your roomies.
7. And then there's YouTube...
Last year I started my own YouTube Channel known as "The Tea" in which I utilize as a platform for literally everything Jeremy. A certain series arose out of this new development known as Roommate Showdown in which my roommate Allan and I went head to head in challenges. This eventually evolved to become a whole suite-wide event in which all of the roomies compete (with a pretty iconic gingerbread challenge to start it all off). While it is a rather unorthodox option, it may be the spirit of competition that will bring you and your roommates together in the end.
Life with new roommates can be awkward and a bit daunting, but with the right interactions, you'll be on your way to making some great new friends.
And that is the tea on that.
