Out of the four roommates I’ve had over the years, there are definitely some that I liked more than others. Sometimes, it's just difficult to connect with people you've never met before and are forced to live with. While I don’t have a lot of experience with roommates, I’ve heard horror stories about some pretty terrible ones. That’s why I want to shed light on the so-so ones, because now I know they could be worse.
1. The Snorer
This is a deal breaker for many people. It’s obnoxious, endless, and you kind of feel bad for hating your roommate because of it. You know they can’t control it. Yet, when you’re just drifting off to sleep, and you hear that first raspy breath, seconds away from becoming a full-blown snore, you die a little inside. You know this is the start of a very long, sleepless night. At least for a few months, until you learn to sleep through it.
If this situation sounds familiar to you, you may want to start rejoicing, because at least your roommate is sleeping. At least they’re in bed. They could be sleep-walking, awake at four in the morning playing the guitar, having loud sex, or full-out weeping at the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Unfortunately, you're going to be wide awake for the whole time either way.
2. The Nudist
I’m lucky to have lived with relatively pleasant roommates over the years, but during my freshman year of college, a friend of mine had a roommate who was a little too proud of her body. This roommate wouldn’t just change in front of my friend, she’d go around the apartment completely nude while doing chores or watching TV. It was strange, disconcerting, and awkward. It’s difficult to have a serious conversation with someone about anything while you’re trying to pretend they're at least wearing underwear.
3. The Bottomless Pit
Having a roommate who is a bottomless pit is like waking up every morning and then flushing a fistful of cash down the toilet. You’re always buying food for the apartment, but you’re never the one eating it. No matter how much food you buy or how much time you spend trying to label it so your roommate doesn’t take it, you always find yourself coming up empty when you open the fridge. It seems physically impossible for your roommate eat that much and still keep his/her weight under 200 pounds, but somehow they manage it, and you’re not really sure how.
4. The Early Bird
It doesn’t matter if you have your first class of the day at 11 a.m. or 3 p.m., your roommate is going to be awake at 6 a.m. every morning. The lights will turn on, and the shades will opened in time to start their morning yoga routine; you can bet putting the pillow over your head will not drown them out. Good luck trying to get to sleep after they leave, because they’ve already infused the room with their alertness, and there’s no going back now.
Just don’t forget that instead of waking up early and quietly going about their morning, they could be waking up early and banging pots and pans around, but they’re not. So really, how bad can it be?
5. The Bathroom Hog
You’re not really sure what they’re doing in there. All you know is that your roommate has been in the bathroom for more than an hour, and there’s no indication that they’ll be out anytime soon. At some point, the shower was on. Now it’s not. Unless they’re conducting a scientific experiment in your shared bathroom that will change the course of mankind, you’d like to get the chance to shower before you head to class. They've been in there long enough to write a novel.
My advice to everyone out there with a not-so-good roommate is to try and stay positive. Whether your roommate is terrorizing you by showing parts of their body you never wanted to see, or emptying your wallet by eating all of the food you bought for yourself, the situation is almost never at its worst. We groan and complain about these kinds of roommates, and yes, they’re annoying, and given the opportunity, you’d probably hit the eject button on them, but as students, we’ve got to make the best with what we’ve got. This is only the beginning.
