As the holiday break is starting to roll around I’m sure many of you are planning all the fun things you are going to do with your friends. As you move on to college, you’ll undoubtedly make many more friends, hopefully including your roommate.
My advice is to keep an open mind!!! While your best friends now might be just like you, as you enter college you’ll learn that many of your friends will have much different interests than you.
Example: my older sister is quiet and crafty. Her freshman year she was roomed with a prom queen (no joke) who when first talking to her asked her what her favorite store is. My sister was totally taken aback, and worried they wouldn’t get along at all. They’re no best friends, and rooming together their senior year! Moral of the story, don’t write someone off before you meet them!
However, I’ll put some restrictions on that advice. I was originally supposed to be paired with a girl who currently lives on my floor. Naturally, the first thing I did was facebook her. It was clearly evident that her lifestyle and mine were polar opposites, to the point that I knew it would cause issues. I’m not talking about different music tastes either. If you can spot glaring points of conflict, I would suggest talking to them about it. Just make sure you’re not making hasty judgments.
If you think it won’t work out, have no fear. I found my current roommate, Mystle, on www.mizzouadmissions.org. She seemed cool, so we worked it out with residential life. Her roommate and my (old) roommate are now together and she and I are roomies. Make sure you’re proactive though, because it took multiple phone calls to residential life before the switch was made.
The final scenario I’ll present is that of getting to college and then deciding you and your roommate are incompatible. This happened with a good friend of mine. I can’t stress this enough, if you are having a problem with them TALK ABOUT IT. Confront them. I don’t care how passive you are, you need to address the issue. If not it becomes this huge elephant in the room, tensions boils, and eventually a big explosion will occur. Roommate move requests can take awhile, and you don’t want to live in an awkward situation for a month.
When it comes to living with someone, remember they’re not your sibling, and they don’t know you. What you and your friends accept, your perfect stranger roommate might not.
There are two major points of conflicts that roommates seem to have: food and boyfriends/girlfriends. Eating each other’s food is usually not a good idea. Unless you’ve established an “open-pantry” relationship, don’t risk it. Invest in easy-charge and head over to Mizzou Market. As for your significant other, set up a system. It varies from person to person, some people don’t mind sharing the room every weekend, but others won’t put up with it. There is a rule that anyone staying over 3 days is considered to be cohabiting and can be kicked out. Just talk to your roommate and establish do’s and don’t ahead of time.
A note on single-gender dorms: Lathrop, Jones and Johnston girls, you can have boy’s over! Wolpers gentlemen, your lady friends can visit too. The rules go that between the hours of 9:00pm and 8:00am members of the opposite sex must have an escort.
Living in the dorms should be one of the best experiences of your life! People cook and clean (common areas) for you, and there will always be someone to hang out with. Make sure you leave your door open! It definitely facilitates friendships. As for those of you living in suites, don’t shut yourself in. Get out and hang out with the rest of your floor. There will be people you don’t like, sure, but you will also make best friends along the way!
FYI: Gillett is closing at semester next year. I live there now, and LOVE IT, but you’ll have to switch dorms at semester. Just a heads up!
