COLUMN: Junior finds the perfect match with first roommate
When I came to college, I hadn’t shared a room with anyone since I was four. In fact, I hadn’t even shared a bathroom with anyone since I was nine. But I knew I was ready for the clichés college brings, including the terrible roommate in a cramped dorm room and nasty bathrooms.
When I arrived at USD, I was nearly finished unpacking when my roommate appeared. From the moment she walked in the door, I knew we’d hit it off. My roommate became one of my closest friends my first year, and I fully believe we helped each other get through those first few weeks away from home.
Why was my roommate such a good roommate? Sure, part of it was because our personalities just clicked. We were from pretty similar backgrounds and had several of the same interests. But that wasn’t the only thing that made my roommate a good roommate.
Initially, we lofted our beds and each had our own sides of the room. After two months, we bunked our beds and shoved them against the window so we’d have more space. There were no longer separate sides. But we each had our own four-drawer towers and had an understanding that we wouldn’t go digging through each other’s stuff. We never said that out loud, but that understanding was there from the beginning.
The same went for food. We shared the refrigerator and freezer but always knew which food each of us had bought. I had never told her she couldn’t eat my food, but we just had that understanding.
Maybe you’re thinking that we never shared anything. But that’s not true. We were the same size and constantly shared clothes, especially for going out and for our sorority chapter meetings. But we always asked the other if they had something we could wear and never just took clothing.
As for food, usually one of us would tell the other to eat something we needed to get rid of or that our parents had sent a ton of back with us. We shared printers when one of us ran out of ink or a pen or stapler if we couldn’t find ours, but we always asked first.
We both constantly had friends over, but neither of us cared because we both only had people over at normal times of the day. Having friends over meant we both expanded our circle of people we knew.
We were both night owls and loved sleeping in, but if one of us ever went to bed early or got up early, we generally would only turn on the lamp and quietly do our homework or get ready by the mirror.
Maybe I just happened to get a roommate who shared the same common courtesy and mutual respect that I had, but it is a great first year.
