Most of you probably know the beauty of having a clean, organized and most importantly considerate roommate. I, however, was not so fortunate—two years in a row! During my RAT year, I was living with a mediocre roommate. He provided the futon, and I provided the TV, but that was pretty much the only agreement that we were able to settle upon.
Our sleep schedules conflicted frequently. Most of the time he would interrupt my schedule with his multiple bed buddies. Luckily, once he pledged, he only slept in the room about three times a week, which was certainly a plus on my end.
By the time my RAT year ended, we were able to tolerate each other, but neither of us really planned to acknowledge each other’s existence anymore.
The real fun began when I choose to room with three of my newly acquired friends. I would have been able to say three of my newly acquired fraternal brothers; however, the third roommate did not make it to the end of the process due to difficulties.
Thus began a year of this particular roommate simply being very unmindful. He opted to make a proverbial nest in the living room, claiming the entire kitchen table and one of the two arm chairs, leaving the rest of us with the couch, a chair, and the coffee table for meals and company.
Now, that does not sound too bad, until you try cooking. I quickly realized that my only counter space was literally a three foot square . The only available space was the coffee table, which was incredibly impractical for use as a kitchen table, crouching over whatever meal you have.
The most annoying fact was that my roommates and I did confront him about our issues. He would either comply for about three days or simply refuse.
Luckily, after a full year of coping with such an annoyance, we were able to break the news that we were not going to room with him the next year due to all the issues mentioned. Do not get me wrong, he was a great guy outside the room, but inside he never really cared about the sanity of his roommates.
This summer, I did the Oxford program ,where one of my roommates was lactose intolerant, with a strange infatuation of cheesy kabobs and ice cream. He also had a lovely duck alarm that would go off at 6 a.m. every day, despite him not getting-up until 7:58 a.m. when we had to leave by 8. Needless to say, his thoughtfulness was hard to find on more than one occasion. Not just that, but even after politely asking him to change his alarm, he would flip the script and become hostile, as if I had accused him of some treacherous horror.
This year has been much better, thankfully. I am sure you all are thrilled to read that my new roommates are actually considerate. One of my current roommates even came from the previous room I mentioned with the—for lack of a better word—slob.
The other two are both members of my RAT class and in the same fraternity too, giving us all the same common ground and a base understanding of how each other tick.
I certainly appreciate living in an environment where everything is clean and put away eventually.
I’m not trying to say you need to be obsessive about cleaning-up your belongings; rather, all I’m looking for is just the common courtesy we all deserve.