Every Dorm Student Can Relate - Living with a Roommate

Living With Your Roommate, Advice from Brand Ambassador, Madelaine:

            Having to share a room with another person is one of the challenges that anyone going to college faces. Living in the same room as someone else is no easy task, especially when you may or may not be friends with them. I know people at Willamette University who are best friends with their roommate. Unfortunately, this is not the case for me and many other students. If you have a less then pleasant roommate here are a couple tips for dealing with them.

·         Communicate. This is one of the most essential and difficult things you have to do. If you're roommate does something that bothers you then you have to tell them. When you're telling them about something do your best to not be rude or abrasive. Try to kindly inform them if you can.

·         Learn to coexist. This will probably look different for everyone. For me it means that my roommate have an agreement to let the other person have the room if they are sleeping.

·         Be considerate. This is just a basic rule of thumb. If you have a roommate it's important for you to both be considerate of each other's needs. Don't use anything that's not yours, and try to be quite when your roommate is sleeping. Also, if you want to talk to someone over phone or Skype for a really long time please don't do it in the room when your roommate is there. It's very uncomfortable to have to listen to someone's conversation (one sided or not) for more than thirty minutes and it makes the other roommate feel like they can't be there. It's not always easy, but it's important for being able to live with each other.

 

Of course if things really don't work out you can always move to a different dorm. This is sad, but acceptable if you're roommate is more than you can bare.