Before you start college you are bound to hear horror stories about people and their random roommates. Don't get scared. Problems are bound to arise when you share a tiny room with another person you've never met before. I was only half lucky when it came to my random roommate.
My freshman roommate and I had a rollercoaster relationship. On move in day, after our families had left, we remained in our cement-walled room surrounded by mountains of our belongings. We both seemed to have different approaches when it came to organizing all our things and that was my first sign that things might not end well. While I went to work placing things where I wanted them, my roommate just complained about how the move in crew just piled things. I constantly heard “this is so stressful”.
Since I had only a couple friends at my college (while my roommate had none), I decided to be her friend. Things were great at first. We ate together, went to the welcome week activities as a pair, and became friends. For the first semester we were basically attached at the hip. When we went home for the weekends we’d be sure to text about how much we missed each other. If one of us decided to go out at night we’d be sure to drop a pin and do regular check-ins (neither of us wanted the other to die). The companionship eventually faded though, as did our tolerance for one another.
I eventually grew tired of her constant messiness. The abundance of takeout boxes scattered throughout the room and mold-infested food in the fridge filled me with rage. We soon developed a roach problem. I could never open the fridge because there was a permanent pile of clothes living in front of it. She once accused my friends and I of stealing her sorority pin because she couldn't find it in her clutter.
I once went to wash my clothes and couldn’t find my laundry detergent. Upon further investigation I found out that my dear, sweet roommate had taken it to her boyfriend’s house to do their laundry. I was a broke college student; I couldn’t afford to supply detergent for three people. Once I looked over from my laptop and saw that my roommate was looking through my closet, without permission. I was taken aback that she felt this was appropriate. Often times when I attempted to study she would watch tv. Loudly.
Our attempt to approach the problems we faced with each other ended in a yelling match. This then led to my roommate giving me the silent treatment...for three months.
Then I moved out at the end of the year. I'm relieved to not deal with the stress of my roommate. Now I just have occasional nightmares about her.
