A roommate gone wrong

Thanks to a highly unfavorable roommate situation, my transition from freshman- to sophomore-year housing wasn’t exactly the smoothest process.

I guess you could say it started when I found her eating leftover Chinese food out of a trash can early in the year. Maybe I should have known then that my roommate wasn’t your typical 18-year-old girl.

Much to my surprise, however, the two of us made it through our first semester with relatively few bumps in the road. While she was incredibly bizarre, my roommate was fun and easy to talk to.

Maybe that’s why, in February, I was okay with the prospect of rooming with her again next year. We planned to apply for Community Living in the high rises, so it wasn’t like I’d be alone with her — I’d have other friends there to help serve as a buffer between the two of us if things got rough.

Come March, though, things had gotten out of hand. If she wasn’t locking herself in our room in the middle of the afternoon demanding privacy, she was wandering outside without a coat and taking naps in the snow. My tolerance for her quirks was at its end.

When we finally sat down and had “the talk” about housing, we realized living together wasn’t an option after all. She ended up getting placed with a random roommate in one of the high rises, and I stayed with our Community Living group. I was finally done sacrificing my own happiness to accommodate her.

Keeping quiet to appease my roommate was one of the many mistakes I made in the housing process. Choosing living arrangements should honestly be a selfish process, and your own happiness should be your primary concern when deciding whom to live with.

Students shouldn’t feel obligated to stick with their freshman-year roommates — sometimes it’s healthy to move on. I had said yes too soon and chose to avoid having a tough conversation with my roommate rather than just telling her the truth.

While it takes longer than a semester to really determine whether you can live with someone, don’t ignore the early warning signs of friction — and don’t expect a new-and-improved room in the high rises to improve your relationship.

Take my advice: get out while you still can.

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