You always see in TV shows and movies the typical roommate best friend situation. Two college freshman meet for the first time and automatically become best friends forever. But the truth is, that is not the case for everyone. Many people will just become good acquaintances with their first-year roommate, like me.
In fact, almost all of my college friends are just good acquaintances with their roommates and have very good friends within their own social circles.
My situation freshman year was a little different than most college students. I moved in almost two months after everyone else so, by the time I met my roommate, she had already made other friends and joined extracurriculars.
Although we had a few great talks about relationships and the stressors of college, we never hung out outside of the dorm room. But, this was not because we hated each other, we were simply two different people with different interests.
For a while, I thought it was me but honestly, some people just do not "click" and that is totally OK.
But despite that, we still respected each other's spaces. We made agreements at the beginning of the year and we both stuck to them, which made living together easy. I never once felt that my roommate was disrespecting me or my stuff.
As amazing as it would have been to be best friends with her, I believe that great friendships happen naturally and cannot be forced.
In the end, this is for all the incoming freshman and returning students that have faced or will face this situation in the future. Do not beat yourself up if this happens to you.
The truth is, people will come and go, including roommates. But the friends that stick with you along the way will be the ones you stick with for life, so don't feel bad if you don't click with your freshman year roommate.
And who knows, so what if you don't become good friends with your roommate freshman year? What about sophomore, junior, and senior year?