How to Get Along With a New Roommate
Getting along with a new roommate can be tough, especially if it is someone who you don’t know and have never met before. In college, I had to share a small dorm room with a random college student, the same age as me in my freshman year and it was quite an experience.
Many people feel uneasy about sharing a room with a total stranger but chances are most people are going to have to go through the experience some point in their life. Whether its in college, graduate school, or an apartment you will be sharing a room with someone. Sometimes it is a friend of yours and other times you will be with a total stranger. In my personal experience I had to share a room with a guy who lived in a similar town as me in New York City but lived a vastly different lifestyle. My own interests reflected around hanging out with friends, studying and going to campus activities. My roommate on the other hand, did not care one bit about his school work and to this day I don’t recall him opening a textbook or seeing the inside of a library.
Almost every night he partied and got drunk. He would blast loud music and was totally absent minded. He would leave his wallet everywhere and he was a total slob when it came to cleaning. While I wasn’t a cleaning freak myself, at least I put my laundry in a bag and organized my clothing in some kind of order. My roommate didn’t believe that he should be cleaning his room in college and as a result, the floor of the room became less and less visible each day. Piles upon piles of clothing were scattered about in the room. The smell and stench of the room got worse every day and the room I lived in became a joke among the people in our hallway. People would stop by as if our room was a tourist attraction just to see how big a mess the room really was.
After about the first month or so of living with my roommate I decided that I needed to have a long with him. I had gotten tired of him blasting music when I tried to sleep or study and the room being a mess. Sitting down at dinner together, I explained to him that I would give him plenty of space and time to blast music during the day because I had classes to attend and I would hang out at my friend’s dorm on most nights. However, I made him realize that I had early classes in the mourning that started at 8:30 and I needed to get a couple of hours of sleep at night. I also compromised with him and told him when I wanted to study for exams or do homework I would go to the study room in my hall community or go to the library to study. He also agreed that even for him the room was getting too messy and we set a time and day one a week to make sure that we straightened up the room.
From then on, it became easier for us to tlak to each other when we had problems with each other. While we were by no means friends, we were able to learn to live together peacefully and without aggravation and that really is all that matters when living with a roommate. I hope that these tips are helpful to you if you are having trouble with your roommate. Always remember that talking things out and compromise are the best solutions to any problem.
