Before coming to college, we lived with our families away from our friends, and everything was great. We could be our fun, happy, and social selves when we wanted to with our friends because then we would make plans to meet with them or see them at school. It would be special to see them, and then when you came home you could just be your completely natural, “naked” self with your family because there is no way they will judge you. They are there for you no matter what, at your best but also definitely at your worst. This is the part that no one else outside your family has to see if you do not want to show it.

However, when you come to college, everything changes. You’re not surrounded by family anymore, you’re just surrounded by friends pretty much 24/7. In fact, you may even live with your closest ones, and this might seem like the best thing in the world when you sign those lease papers, but is it? Despite being best friends, living together might not be the best decision because you start to realize things about the other that you might not have before. You might be more different than you expected. This definitely does not mean that you still do not love the person for who they are, but you might just not be compatible partners in the way you live, and it would be horrible to strain the good relationship you have with small living concerns.

In terms of roommates in general, there are a lot of things that need to be matched accordingly with people, and you have to make several sacrifices or concessions in order to suit everyone’s needs. First of all, cleanliness is a primary matter of concern. Some people do not mind leaving their clothes around the house, their books on chairs, tables and sofas in the living room or their dirty dishes in the sink until it fills up. However, others like to have everything in order and arrange things in their bedroom and common areas constantly just because they feel more comfortable this way. If you have one of each living in an apartment, it can be hard to keep both happy all the time, and the OCD roommate will probably always be the one cleaning up because they feel a natural urge to.

Another matter of concern in college between roommates is noise level. Some students love to have people over, watch movies late at night on the TV or play their music out loud. This can be disturbing for roommates who enjoy quiet settings, and they might feel like they always have to go to the library just to avoid the noise at home, even though they would rather avoid embarking on a trek in the freezing weather to the cold library.

Finally, one other problem can be smoking cigarettes in the house. The people that smoke obviously are not concerned about the smell, but other roommates might not like it, and truth is that even if you open a window and smoke out of it, the apartment or room in a house will still have an after smell. Besides, opening the window just allows the cold wind and weather to enter during winter, and no one likes that either.

There are many small factors that can annoy roommates just because of differences in character, and it would be unfortunate if it turns out that your best friend is actually your opposite in terms of living behaviors, as this might create tensions and unnecessary bitterness and disagreements between each other.

Then again, is it better to live with strangers who you might not trust and might not get along with? I mean we all saw "The Roommate" before coming to college. An experience like that would NOT be fun! Living alone might seem like an option too, but it can also be nice to have someone to talk to once in a while or take care of you while you are sick. At the same time though, living with roommates makes it more likely for you to get sick since you are sharing so many things. There is no true answer, so just think about all of this when you are deciding where to live next year and with whom to live since you want to be able to feel comfortable and happy in your home at all times!