<p>An article in today’s New York Times:
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/education/edlife/25roommate-t.html?_r=1&hpw[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/education/edlife/25roommate-t.html?_r=1&hpw</a></p>
<p>That is a good article. In my opinion, you don’t have to be your new rooomate’s best friend, and vice versa. People in college should be mature enough to live with someone without losing their minds.</p>
<p>This article is spot-on. My freshman year, I had a roommate who had a lot of trouble with verbal communication. She always meant well and had good intentions but simply couldn’t sit down and talk about the tough stuff. It made it incredibly difficult to navigate the conflicts which inevitably came up over the course of a freshman year. </p>
<p>The first week of classes, an upperclassmen told us, “You don’t have to be best friends with your roommate.” And it is so right. I think often, girls in particular feel a lot of stress to have that “perfect roommate best friends for the rest of your life” relationship but in reality, especially with how randomly roommates are matched, that rarely happens. Once I took the stress off myself to be best friends with my roommate I looked at it as an opportunity for growth and maturation in terms of living with someone new and learning how to communicate. Since I go to a school with a residential college system we have Masters (older faculty members) who mediate all roommate issues–it’s never left up to university administration–and both roommates are always involved. It’s definitely effective.</p>
<p>"People in college should be mature enough to live with someone without losing their minds. "</p>
<p>That’s definitely not the reality of the situation, particularly not in the freshmen dorms.</p>
<p>My roommate cried hysterically and demanded an apology whenever I tried to bring anything up. I started trying to get a room swap in October and never managed it, and will never have a roommate again. If you get someone that won’t communicate with you, do whatever you can to get out. Even if they seem cool anyway, at any moment they could do something really *****y and there will be nothing you can do to resolve the matter.</p>
<p>“People in college should be mature enough to live with someone without losing their minds.”</p>
<p>+1.</p>
<p>It’s not just about how someone else handles issues, but how you handle them and lead in situations, knowing how to react to them. With that said, if you can’t stand each other, switch roommates.</p>