Newsfeed
Printer-Friendly ModeRoommate tensions natural
November 6, 2006 —
College is generally a very stressful experience on its own. On top of that, you get stuck living with new people for approximately 30 weeks.
Personally, I am on my fourth set of roommates in the past year. This isn't because I got fed up with the other three sets, but because my "situation" kept changing. I walked away from each living arrangement with new perspectives.
Last fall I lived in a four-bedroom dorm in Living Center North with five other girls. Four of us were paired up while the other two had their own bedroom.
Now I don't know if everyone has seen the bedrooms in these dorms, but they aren't exactly the roomiest - each bedroom is 9 x 13. Throw in two desks, two dressers, and a set of bunk beds and it gets real cozy real fast.
Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate my roommate or anything, but sometimes you just need your own space, which is really hard when you are sharing a bedroom with someone. Sometimes tensions were high, but it all ended just fine.
I spent the winter semester of my freshman year in Florida on the Disney College Program. This time I was in a spacious, two-bedroom, four-person apartment. It was a step up from SVSU housing, but once again I was living with complete strangers.
For the most part, I got along with all three, but towards the end of the program one of them snapped. She claimed she couldn't stand living with one of our roommates and tried to get said roommate removed from the apartment. In the end, the roommate with the problem moved out and we never got a new one.
What I learned from this experience was not to try to rally all your roommates against another roommate and to try to communicate better with them.
I came back to SVSU for the summer semester and once again had three new roommates. For the most part we all got along. What I observed during this experience is that no one, myself included, really likes taking out the trash.
Now, I am living on campus in the University Village. I have my own bedroom and share a bathroom with one of my roommates. Everything was going fine, until recent events got on my nerves. This is where communication comes into play. You have to find the most "proper" way to communicate problems to other roommates.
I didn't think one of my roommates was respecting my property or my space. As I said before, I'm no expert at roommate communication. I tried to communicate my grievances through a note.
This note then led to "tensions" in my apartment. I admit, I probably could have thought of a better way to communicate my issues, but the past is the past. What matters is that I had a problem with something that was going on and I informed my roommate about it.
The big point that I'm trying to make is to communicate with your roommates.
If there are four people living together, there are four different sets of feelings and preferences you need to take into consideration. So, if you do have a problem with how a certain roommate is treating you or your property, communicate your issue with them to them. We are supposed to be "mature" college students, so please act accordingly.