Let’s face it. All of us come into college with the perfect roommate situation in our minds. You’re going to have so much in common and totally get along, share your deepest darkest secrets with one another and become best friends for life. She (or he) will probably end up being your best man or maid of honor.
The truth is you’ll probably mostly get along, will sort of have some stuff in common but mainly just tolerate living six feet from each other for a whole school year.
In Morrill, not only do you get to test your compatibility with one other person…but nine other people. These are the people you will see every day for the duration of the school year, so it’s in everyone’s best interest if you put your differences aside and just get along.
Does that actually happen? Usually not.
There was plenty of suitemate drama my freshman year. People got mad at each other, somebody tracked mud in the showers, boyfriends basically lived with them. There’s all sorts of issues that come with living with so many people of the same gender.
The best thing you can do is to make sure that you get enough time to yourself. No matter how much you like these other people, you cannot spend every waking minute around them or you will go insane.
You can always request roommates as well. You’re less likely to have this work as a freshman, but it’s possible.
Most cases, however, are like mine. I lived with totally random people that a computer sorted into rooms based on what I said about myself on my housing form (though I highly doubt that actually makes much difference).
(Back in the old days an unfortunate man or woman had to sort all these out by hand and unsurprisingly there were a lot of “Jackie and Diane’s” living together. Hey, you gotta do something to make your job interesting.)
One day this summer you will get the email telling you your roommates names and it will be the most exhilarating and nerve wracking email. Because now you know their names….but you don’t know anything about them.
So you have to find out! In these times of social media, you will creep on your roommates before you meet them and they will creep on you. So maybe keep that in mind when you’re tweeting and posting….and don’t make judgements before you meet them. Just because their favorite band is Nickelback doesn’t make them a terrible person.
Anyway, there’s always a chance you might end up rooming with your best friend and there’s a chance you might be polar opposites, but the key is to find similarities and work on the differences. If you do that, there’s a good chance you’ll survive living in Morrill Tower.