Before I moved to college, many people would ask "where are you staying?" or "who are you rooming with?" to which I would reply that I was staying in a dorm with my best friend.
Upon hearing my plans to room with my best friend, I was almost always greeted with replies similar to "Oh that's a bad idea." And for the first few weeks, I began to believe them, as my best friend and I fought over silly things and grew more distant. However after a few more weeks, we both took a step back and decided to talk through our differences, and it has certainly made us stronger for it.
Having met in gym class freshman year of high school and bonding over our hatred of running laps, we became friends. Each day we would hide at the top of the stairs so the coaches wouldn't see us slacking, and even when they did (and we know they did), they didn't say a word to us.
This was the beginning of my relationship with someone who would become my rock for the next four years of high school. And that's exactly what she was to me, my rock. That is, until freshman year of college rolled around and we began to annoy each other with the smallest of mishaps.
The first few days of rooming together were fine, and we laid down some ground rules about things such as laundry. A few weeks after that, however, we began becoming increasingly irritated with each other, and I felt that I could no longer confide in the person who had been my rock for the past four years.
Oftentimes the room would be completely silent with both of us inside, as neither of us wanted to say anything out of fear of annoying the other. However, after a few more weeks of loneliness and silence, we took a step back.
One evening after classes, she and I had a rough evening that led to us being particularly brutal to one another, telling each other things that completely annoyed us about the other, without sympathy. I immediately felt regret after and we decided to talk about what was said. We both apologized and said how we were stressed about classes and how we were lacking well-needed privacy.
And after that talk, something seemed to really click between us. We no longer fought as much, and we began to try and open up our personal spaces, and I found that those people that told me it was a bad idea to room with my best friend, were wrong.
Having gone through the fights and the annoyances, our relationship was stronger than before we started college. Although we had to overcome many mountains and valleys, our relationship is so much stronger than it ever was before. I learned more about how she lives and what she expects.
As I'm sure she learned of me as well. We have decided that even through all of the fights and annoyances and arguments, we never once wanted to stop being each other's best friend. And that has truly shown me how strong our relationship really is.
So regardless of what anybody tells you, room with your best friend if you want to! Be prepared for the occasional surprises and arguments, but I can promise you that your relationship will be so much stronger for it, granted that you just put in the effort.
