My best friend is one of my favorite people in the entire world. She's the yin to my yang, the moon to my sun, the Thelma to my Louise. Ever since we met, we sort of just clicked. Our personalities blend together so well and we both make-up for what the other lacks. Ours is one of the most functional relationships I've ever been in and I couldn't imagine my life without her and I'm glad I don't have to for a while. While she may be my best friend in the world, she's also my roommate.
I know what you're thinking: "You live with your best friend?! That won't last long..." That's what everyone says when I tell them about our living arrangement. I'm not sure why, but it seems to be sort of a well-known rule that you should never room with your best bud, for fear of living together could ruin the friendship you have. Based on my experience, that rule is crap. There's no reason why we as functioning, human adults shouldn't be able to maintain a cohabitating friendship.
Now I realize that not everyone has the kind of relationship with their bestie that would condone them living together. Some people are just not meant to share a living space, and that's okay too! I just feel like too many people swear off the idea of living with their best bud before ever giving it a shot.
It's not always a cakewalk, and I never expected it to be. Sometimes I can tell when we've been around each other too much because we'll both start to get a little irritable. That tells me that we just need a little space, so I'll back off and go take a nap or watch Netflix for a while. I think it's important to keep our personal independence while sharing the environment we live in. Thank God we both have our own bedrooms because sharing one would surely be chaos. Her room is her space and my room is mine and that keeps us sane.
Something we've really started to bond over is making dinner together. We make dinner together 2-3 nights a week and we both share the responsibility of providing and preparing the ingredients. It's become something we both seriously look forward to. It's the perfect way to end a long day and sort of decompress from the normal stressors of everyday college life. Sometimes we talk as we cook. Sometimes we work in silence. I enjoy both equally.
If I could pass some advice along to someone considering rooming with their best friend, I would say all it takes to make it a good experience is to just be a good person and have respect for your roommate. GIve them space when you can tell it's needed and be considerate of their space. I always try to make sure I'm contributing to at least one chore a day. Whether it's loading the dishwasher, taking some trash out, or even just going to get our mail. I like to make sure she knows I'm making an effort, even if it's small, to show her that I respect her space and I want her to respect mine. That's what it's all about.
I like to think that I'm pretty easy to get along with, and perhaps that helps make me easier to live with. Living with my best friend has been one of my favorite decisions. I always have someone to talk to, an arm's length away. It's comforting having someone to come home to every day, rather than being alone all the time. Being able to successfully share a space with someone else is a really intimate and vulnerable skill to have. I think everyone should have to learn this for themselves, who better to room with than your best friend?
