Moving into a college dorm is a rite of passage for many students–but for some, this comes with drawbacks. While many roommates become lifelong friends, some can become the source of daily frustration.
L, an Oak Hall resident who chose to remain anonymous, said her biggest struggles with her roommate have been communication and cleanliness.
Communication is extremely important to her, but her roommate is not great at it. Last semester, L’s roommate invited her out but failed to communicate the details which wasted hours of her time while studying for finals.
L also said her roommate struggles with keeping their shared spaces clean.
“I’ve gotten to the point where I literally just make a line through the sink and just clean my half cause I’m so done,” she said
Her roommate also continuously has guests over without warning. Prior to her interview, L went to pick something up from her room only to find one of her roommates guests in there alone. L said this is a frequent occurrence.
L wishes her and her roommate could have connected more, but it hasn’t worked out.
“I was so heavily expecting us to become best friends, and so I think that’s why I was so hurt by it,” she said.
E, another Oak Hall resident who chose to remain anonymous, has had a persistent issue with her roommate’s temperature preference.
Her roommate constantly sets the thermostat above 70° despite the heater being directly above E’s bed.
“I burn alive all the time in my room,” she said.
E has tried communicating this frustration with her roommate but it just continues to happen. She said she is not good at confrontation, so she no longer brings it up–instead she just changes the thermostat herself.
“There’s only so much I can do,” she said.
E thinks a good roommate should be mindful that they are sharing a space with someone. E shared a room with a sibling for many years, which she thinks prepared her for dorming. She doesn’t think her roommate had a similar experience.
Natalia Rosales and Isabella Peña are randomly assigned roommates. Despite this, the two have made it work.
The pair said that amongst meeting each other they immediately set boundaries and established very open communication with one another.
Peña said that when coexisting with a roommate, it’s important not to take things personally. She specifically mentioned a time when Rosales was studying and asked her to turn down the TV.
“It’s that mutual understanding of, you’re studying, I don’t need to have my TV on, I can totally turn it off,” she said.
Peña also thinks it’s been helpful that she is very confrontational.
“If you don’t raise your concerns, you’re just gonna keep getting upset and it’s never gonna get solved,” she said.
Rosales said that living with a roommate has made her learn to be selfless.
“I’ll be like ‘She probably needs this’ or ‘I’ll do this for her’ just because I know she’s gonna be there and I care about her,” said Rosales.
The pair said the hardest part about having a roommate has been a lack of privacy, but that they’ve learned when to give each other space.
“She has her personal life, I have my personal life. I don’t have to understand everything or know everything,” said Rosales
