The absolute scariest thing about college for me was my roommates. I spent my entire summer wondering who they were, where they were from, if they were clean freaks or absolute slobs. You know the important stuff.
Before I tell you the beautiful and horrifying experiences of having a roommate there are two important things to note. One I went to college in England and two there wasn’t a cafeteria that gave you all of your meals. I lived in a suite, I had my own room and bathroom but we shared a common space and kitchen. Since there was no place where meals were provided all 6 students had to coordinate when we made meals.
The most important thing that you must do when buying for a shared space is deciding who is buying what and how you’re splitting the cost. We decided to buy large appliances as a group and pots, pans, plates, utensils, and groceries we bought our personal ones. Now even though we had shared and personal items for the most part they all melded into one. This did not come without its fair share of arguments.
My roommate and teammate loved baking and cooking. She was always in the kitchen. I always expressed that she could use my items so long as she washed them. A day would turn to two days and two days would turn into a week and half. The kitchen turned into a germaphobe's nightmare. The food that was sat out turned into my break point. We had to get our Resident Assistant (RA) involved before our spat turned into a full on feud.
We had a long conversation about what was important to us and we can both respect each other and our shared space. We set rules and chores charts to hopefully calm the storm that had already formed in our kitchen between the 6 of us. It did not change immediately but over time we all became best friends. We even travel the world together.
- D. B.