I moved to New York City when I was 19 and I've had a lot of roommates since then. However, it wasn't until I moved into an apartment with two of my very best friends (at the time) that I found out what living with friends was really like. Not every situation is like this obviously, but these are some common experiences my friends and I had when we moved in with our friends.
1. You get approved for an apartment
You and your very best friends just got approved for an apartment and you couldn't be happier to be moving in with each other!
2. You get disappointed by your room
When you were asked about a room, you said you didn't care which one you got. You move in and realize that your friends gave you the smallest room in the apartment.
3. Somebody will have OCD
Everybody has that one friend with OCD. They will create a chore chart and assign each occupant their own cupboard, shelf in the fridge and specific location for their shampoo bottle. It's their spot, so please don't move it.
4. Somebody won't help clean
There most likely will be a roommate that doesn't help clean the apartment at all. They're the one who has been so incredibly spoiled as a child that they don't see why it's important to clean their own dishes.
5. They also won't pay for utilities
This same roommate is the one who irresponsibly spends their paycheck from their dive bar job on alcohol and designer handbags instead of the cable and internet bill.
6. The introvert will double as a party animal
There's one friend who always is the life of the party when you all go out, but at the apartment they're the introverted, anti-social roommate who is always in their room. They won't even say "hi" to you when they come home from work or school. They just go straight to their room.
7. It becomes too close for comfort
By the third month of your lease, you are all getting so sick of each other and you wonder how you all could have been friends in the first place.
8. Alcohol brings out the truth
Ignoring the fact that you all annoy each other, you got out for a night of bar hopping and get so incredibly drunk that you start calling each other out on all of their annoying habits.
9. Hunger is more important than fights
In the morning you have forgotten it all and your hangover leads you to hop on GrubHub for a roommate breakfast date.
10. You all secretly wonder who's going to have a boy over first
11. Nobody ever does
You're most likely too embarrassed of your roommates to have someone over. Even you can only put up with them for so long.
12. You will bond
You'll have bonding nights watching Pretty Little Liars, drinking invented concoctions of who-knows-what and eating an entire box of Oreos...each. It'll feel like the good old days, you know, back when you didn't live together.
13. You will argue
There will come that day when you don't do your dishes within 24 hours of using them and that OCD roommate will leave a passive-aggressive text/note that is purposely vague. All the while, you know (and everyone else knows) that the one who wrote the text/note knows exactly who did what, so there's no reason for them to be vague. If they're trying to be nicer, it's not working.
14. You'll antagonize them
You'll get angry and not do your dishes still because it's more fun to upset the OCD one and you'll think you're making a point.
15. They will call you out on it
You'll eventually stop stirring the pot when they decide to come home and yell at you like an eighth grader that just found out her boyfriend was kissing another girl at the Stop and Shop.
16. Phone calls to mom become a necessity
You'll call your mom twice a day, three times a week because you'll start to feel like you don't have any friends at all.
17. You learn who you are
You'll start to learn things about yourself you never thought were possible. You'll discover what you truly value in life and you'll start to take note of the kind of people you want in your life.
18. Friends may become acquaintances
Unfortunately, the "friends" you moved in with may just end up being your first roommates.
19. Or you just don't live together again
Maybe you'll all move into different apartments the next year, vowing never to live together again, but PLL night will still be a thing!
20. You'll realize how worth it this all was
Regardless of what happens, at the end of the lease you'll be happy you took the chance. How else would you have found all of this out? You'll be reminded that everything is an experience and next time you'll send out a thorough application for potential roommates. :-)