Dear ExRoommate,

When I got out of the shower, our other roommate burst into the bathroom to tell me that you were “moving out, like, right now”, the first emotion I felt was shock. After all, there’s only two weeks left in the semester, and you hadn’t mentioned anything to us about changing rooms.

I walked out of the bathroom and there you were, with six of your sorority sisters hastily packing your life here in suitcases and I briefly wondered why you had even unpacked from your recent trip home at all.

All I want to know is why. Was it something to do with us? If so, why didn’t you say anything so we could work it out? I know we weren’t super close, especially after Halloween weekend, but I thought we were at the very least cool with each other. For me, living with you had its irritants, I’ll admit to that… But I never hated you and could have tolerated with living with you for the rest of the year. We never asked you to leave or tried to bully you out of your space.

If someone were to ask me to describe you, I would say that you’re a very sweet girl who means well. If they were to ask me what it was like living with you? I would say we were incompatible. Your personality was the only thing making being roommates with you bearable.

Your living habits weren’t totally and completely awful, but if I had known what they were beforehand and if the choice was mine, I wouldn’t have lived with you. I know I’m kind of difficult to live with because I’m so particular, but seriously, would it have killed you to Swiffer, Lysol, or literally anything to help clean the room? I know that taking out the trash, supposedly, made you gag, but there were plenty of other things that could be done. For example, it takes maybe 20 minutes to take the hair out of the drain, shake out the bathroom rugs, bleach the shower, clean the toilet, and wipe down the sink with a cleaning rag. Or, since you didn’t want to do any real cleaning, you could have, at the very least, kept your mess on your side of the room. You knew beforehand that our other roommate and I like the room to be tidy, and yet you constantly let your clothes lay scattered about in the middle of the room, in the little walkway, and your laundry was always overflowing by the window.

And then, you had these annoying habits of letting old food sit out for days, sleeping naked (every night), and talking on the phone, loudly, late at night, and for hours on end.

But you see, I could tolerate all these things, even though I found them to be rude and disrespectful. I could tolerate all these things because I figured that you weren’t intentionally trying to be rude.

You know what was rude though? You taking the trash bags out of the garbage cans (since you brought them – fine), but not taking them down to the trash room.

That, and leaving without saying good-bye. We lived together for four months, and didn’t have any major arguments, but apparently, that meant nothing as you never said a word in parting. Not even a text.

Despite all that, I hope you like your new suitemates more than you ever liked us. I hope you treat them and their space with more respect than you did with us. I wish you best of luck in everything.

With love,

Your ExRoommate