"Who ate my food?" - Tales of living with a roommate

By Karlotta D. Richardson
The Collegian

Whether or not you have lived with a roommate, you still know the types. There is the guy with really bad personal hygiene, the girl who has no problem getting intimate with her boyfriend while you are still in the room, or the roommates who never clean up after themselves and eat all of your food.

With the start of the new semester, those who have roommates are coming back to possibly face some of these problems, but not all roommate experiences have to be negative.

These days, young people, and especially college students, find it necessary to live with a roommate either on campus, apartments or houses, for obvious advantages.

“Never being alone, splitting bills, having another closet to go through,” said Connie Conway, 24, who has attended Fresno State.

Jennae Howeth, 25, is a student at the College of the Sequoias she said it is fun to live away from your parents and gaining a sense of independence and maturity is an advantage to living with a roommate.

In some ways, a person is fortunate to live with someone they already know because of the risks you take living with a stranger.

The Web site for Baylor University, www.baylor.edu, gives pointers to people who are considering living with someone they do not know.

“When choosing a roommate that you don’t know, it is a good idea to talk with the individual on the phone first. If it seems to be worth pursuing, then set up a time to meet and discuss some important matters to check your compatibility.”

When you begin to look for a roommate, www.apartmentreviews.com suggests that you maintain realistic expectations.

“First of all, before you even get started, abandon your illusion of finding the perfect roommate.”

In some situations, living with a roommate can make or break a friendship. For Christine Perez, 24, a senior at Fresno State, being a roommate gives people the opportunity to get to know someone they may have otherwise never met.

“You gain a really good friend who you might not have normally even considered talking to in the first place,” Perez said.

For Perez, another advantage to having a roommate is living with someone from another country.

“I have also become somewhat close to a roommate who is from Japan, which is really interesting. I love learning about her culture. When I tell her about American culture, I am sometimes forced to analyze what I do and don’t know about my own background as an American,” she said. “It is so easy to be ethnocentric, but with her I am forced to step back.”

Conway has lived with four girls, but she is now living with two guys and said it is an interesting experience.

“Living with a guy is kind of like having a big brother around. They’re overprotective and no guy that you bring home is good enough. Also, they always want my ‘hot’ friends to come over,” she said.

Perez had a roommate who, she believes, had no regard for the feelings of her roommates.

“She put her crayfish (in a tank) in the living room without asking everyone’s permission. They stayed there the whole year and she never really cleaned the tanks, so it would stink up the whole living room. She also had snails, turtles and fish. She was weird and threw fits when she didn’t get her way,” she said.

Now people looking for a roommate are not just limited to the newspaper when it comes to posting an ad.

With the use of the Internet, there are many ways to find a roommate who is just right for you.

Web sites such as www.roommates.com and www.roomiematch.com help people find roommates by creating a profile and allowing you to look at other profiles that match the criteria you are looking for.

Kim Anderson, 20, a junior at Fresno State, found www.roommates.com to be extremely helpful because it is how she met her current roommate.

Individuals need to find the method that works best for them when dealing with a roommate conflict.

According to the Baylor University Web site in any situation communication is the key to a successful roommate relationship.

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