There are people who find their roommates before move-in, click right off the bat, and remain friends throughout the year, if not the rest of school. Then, there are those of us who go in blind, get stuck with not one, but two new people, and end up having a sh*tty experience.

If you guessed that I am the second type of person, you would be correct. It started out well enough; a small incident with bed arrangements was just a bump in the road. No big deal, we figured it out and started to get along.

As the year went on though, one thing became apparent: there was no mutual respect for personal items or space.

My food was eaten without telling me...and Girl Scout cookies are sacred. I would come home to random people in my room, even sitting on my bed, without warning. Especially when you have been in class all day and worked until 9:00 at night, the only thing you could want is to lay down. I would wake up and get dressed, only to then make eye contact with a boy in my roommate’s bed I didn’t realize was there and had just changed in front of. Lastly, passive-aggressive digs at my character are definitely not acceptable. As I change into comfortable clothes and hear, “Haha, what? Chloe is studying on a Friday instead of going out?!” all I can think is, “Alright. I get it. You think all I do is party.”

Granted, they are not the only ones to blame. I definitely have my faults – from coming back late at night to having people in the room without giving notice as well. I take full responsibility for being a part of the problem. That is not to say I didn’t try to be the bigger person and move on. Though strongly urged by my friends and sister to say something, I let it go because I figured, “Hey, they live here too and maybe they’ve never lived in the same room with another person before.”

If I had to do it all over, I probably would’ve changed some things.

First, I should have said something in the beginning. I shouldn’t have let it get to the point that I would hang out in my friend’s room because I couldn’t handle being in mine. If you have a problem with something your roommate does, TELL THEM. It doesn’t have to be a battle of passive-aggressive comments back and forth that doesn’t solve anything. Communication is key.

Learn from my mistakes, speak up and try to work things out; or maybe you’ll just get lucky and not have the issues I did.