How to be a better roommate

inNeedOfPencils
Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:54:00 +0000

First off, I want to congratulate you on admitting it could be your fault, and not immediately blaming it on your roommate. Kudos to you.

I know how it is to feel awkward about bringing up things that annoy/bug/bother you, especially with someone you don’t know particularly well. What I’ve done before is to write a note and leave it somewhere you know they’ll find. I did that once when a hallmate said something particularly hurtful, and I didn’t want to have a face-to-face conversation about it. And sometimes it works when you don’t know what to say. So if you’re worried that you’re annoying her, try to leave her a short letter on her desk or somewhere explaining your concerns. She may not reply, but at least she’ll be aware, and you’ll know that you’ve made an effort to improve your relationship with her.

I personally think it’s perfectly fine to simply ‘peacefully coexist’ with your roommate. My roommate and I are in a similar situation. We each have our own group of friends, and we get along fine, but we are in no way best friends. Both of us have this little fear that we’re going to annoy each other, but we use the leave-a-note system to let each other know if we have any issues (since we’re both rather passive-aggressive). In general, we’ve found it best if we let each other do our own thing, and be okay with the fact that we’re not best friends. In fact, we’ve gotten more comfortable around each other once we decided we don’t have to be attached at the hip.