Roommates can be hassle for students
By Justin Manger
Everyone knows of one. They're the kind of people who make the thought of returning to your dorm less than heart-warming. In fact, a lot of times you probably wish they would simply disappear.
There seems to exist tiers of this "roommate negativity." These typically are the breed who either talk too much, don't say much of anything, are a little too messy or maybe a little too anal about keeping their stuff to themselves (God forbid they share). They may be slightly too cocky or incorrectly assume that they can borrow whatever they want of yours without asking. While these kinds of people certainly aren't easy to live with, it's probably relatively easy to phase them out when you need, want or have to.
The next worst gradation is a more intense version of the aforementioned case. This strain usually includes the roommates who unthinkingly assume that since they live in the room, it is unquestionably and categorically theirs first and foremost. They show little regard for whatever tasks you are trying to accomplish, whether it be guitar playing, IMing, sleeping or even the occasional studying. They don't make the slightest attempt to be considerate of your space in the room. These lesser creatures are usually self-centered and are often incapable of any sort of substantive, meaningful thought for others. Although these people are more rare than the people mentioned in the first case, they are unfortunately far more grating and difficult people with whom to live.
Of course, we cannot forget the worst breed of roommate/human being alive. These are the people who are the statistical "outliers" of humanity. People who, for whatever reasons, are markedly different from the typical human norm, and almost always in a negative fashion. Their problems are so serious that they are simultaneously tragic, and yet undeniably humorous.
You might feel bad about making fun of them initially, until you realize that the manner in which they have behaved toward you morally absolves you from feeling any other sentiment regarding your own vicious mockery and/or deriding of them save a righteous justification.
What makes these jocular exchanges so interesting are the stories people tell each other about the various species of wackos with which people have lived. One such story involved the person's sociopathic roommate telling him, "Just so you know, I'm not looking for a 'buddy-buddy' relationship in a roommate" on the first official move-in day, with a grand total of what must have been about 30 minutes of interaction between the two.
Other stories involve roommates individually labeling every last one of their possessions, and making it obsessively clear that none of their belongings is to be used or touched ... ever. One particularly unnerving tale involved an unusually agitated individual threatening to beat his roommate up at 1 a.m. for eating chips in a crinkly bag and reading with a 60-watt desk lamp, despite the fact that "Mr. Bonkers" had been in bed with his lights off for an hour and a half.
Evidently, this confrontation turned into a more "civilized" two-hour lecture given by what one could legitimately describe as a highly paranoid individual. Such is evidenced by the fact that this person had apparently been keeping a running tally of absolutely everything his roommate had said or done since the beginning of the year that annoyed him, including "erroneous" things the mentally-stable roommate had told his own friends within the confines of the room. Granted, some of these do seem a bit hard to believe, but I grilled each of my friends about the validity of their stories, and they swore they were true.
My advice: if you get in a situation such as the first I mentioned, in which you're living with a mildly irritating roommate, grin and bear it. It'll teach you character. Otherwise, get out of the room, so you don't have one miserable person dampening your spirits throughout the entire year. Life is too short.