Have you had good or bad roommate experiences?

@fluffysue (1482)
United States
March 11, 2010 10:54am CST
I was inspired to post this by another discussion I saw about whether to live on or off-campus. I've had both good and bad roommate experiences, so I've seen both sides. When I started college, I roomed with a friend of mine for two years. This worked out well, although in retrospect, being on the shy side, it may have hindered my making new friends, since we were together a lot of the time. But it was good for me, since I was hesitant about going to college so far from home. It worked out very well for the first two years. For our junior year, we decided we wanted an on-campus apartment. They were 2-bedroom/1-bathroom apartments. We got put in one with two girls who were absolutely horrible. They were always picking fights with us about something, and one of them threatened us physical harm on more than one occasion. One had her boyfriend practically living there, and I said something to her about this, and I think this was part of the problem (this was not the one who threatened me, though). In retrospect, I shouldn't have complained, he was a nice guy, and made a better roommate than the other two. They would frequently take the handset of the phone (mine, by the way, but I put in the living room for all to use), put it in their room, and lock the door. (This made me feel unsafe, given the threats). They also did this with the kitten one of them had taken in (with no litterbox or food in the room), when they decided they did not want us playing with him. After many complaints, we were finally allowed to switch, but by that point, there was no longer space for us to room together. My roommate wanted nothing more to do with the apartments and opted for a single room in a regular dorm. I stayed in the campus apartments and did end up with some nice roommates; it was interesting because they were all from different places (Germany, Brazil, and U.S. Virgin Islands), and they were much older than me (28-30, while I was 19 or 20). Even though they were older, I had to constantly remind the 28-year-old to lock the front door when she came home in the middle of the night. We were all puzzling over what she'd written in German on the message board on the door, until she finally told us it meant "lock the door". I also had some issues with the fact that she would walk into our room and just start stripping, regardless of if I was there, or that she was in front of a window. (That, I learned to just ignore. You have to pick your battles, and the door was more important. lol). For the most part, though, the four of us got along rather well, despite any differences. It was a good experience living with people who were from different places, as well as being at a different point in their lives. After college, my previous roommate and I shared an apartment (off-campus, obviously) for a few years. We got along well, but then we had been friends since we were 16. I am actually amazed it worked out, because she is neat and organized, and I am basically a slob. So it was a good experience, until she moved in with her boyfriend and I couldn't pay the rent anymore. I didn't want another roommate after that, because I felt it was too risky to have a stranger move into the apartment. So, what about you? Have you had good or bad roommate experiences? Feel free to share your stories!
1 person likes this
5 responses
@cream97 (29086)
• United States
11 Mar 10
Hi, fluffysue. I have had some good and bad experiences with staying on campus. With one girl, I owed her $3.00 and she practically was about to beat me up for her money. She was very mean. And my roommate would let her friends come into our room and leave crumbs on my desk. I would tell her about it when I got back and she just listened without saying anything. She was a very sneaky girl. And one time me and this other girl was playing around and I sprayed air fresher around her as a joke. And she came after me playing and she had Lysol spray and she was trying to get into my room and she sprayed Lysol all in my face. My roommate let her in my room. She knew that these girls were after me. That is why she did it. It was very childish and mean of her to do that to me. My roommate even had the nerve to tell me that her hair was longer than mines. Which was not true at all. She just came out and told me this. She was very weird and I would never stay back on campus if it cost me my life. This experience was very awful! There was nothing good about it!
@fluffysue (1482)
• United States
11 Mar 10
Hi there cream97! It was partly because of your response on that other discussion that I decided to post this, it reminded me that I'd forgotten about the dark side of having roommates! Thanks for sharing the whole story here. It always surprised me in college that people were still acting like they were in high school, or kindergarten in some cases. To others, both your incidents and mine might sound like minor things, but they are really not when they involve people you LIVE with. If you cannot feel safe from harassment in what is essentially your home, it can really hurt all aspects of your life.
@cream97 (29086)
• United States
11 Mar 10
Yes, it did a lot of damage to me. I stayed in bed that night crying and I was very sad. I had nothing to say to my roommate after that. She knew that I was very upset because she did not say anything to me. When she went back home to visit her family for the weekend, I packed all of my stuff up and I left. I did not like the environment that I was in anyway. The girls were a bit too odd for me. So when she came back to the dorm, I know that she noticed that all of my belongings was gone. The room was stripped. I know that she felt pretty bad. Years later after this incident, I would see her at the clothing store and at the church that I attended, and she acted like she did not know who I was. She seemed very ashamed. I wanted her to be. I will never ever stay on campus again. I did that just to have some freedom away from my grandmother. I had a boyfriend at that time and I wanted to be with him whenever I pleased. We had a long term relationship and we loved each other very much. He lived up the street from the college that I used to go to. It was a fun being away from home. But I grew homesick eventually. Just dealing with many strangers at a new college can be very scary if your cards is not played right.
• China
12 Mar 10
Oh cream your room mate was so dengerous. Well still i have one room mate and before i had one another room mate. One thing was similer with your room mate atfirst she also bring others to our room. And she said that he is her own brother. But she was lier. Well other wise she was good. One more bad habits she had that she touch my food or things with out asking me. But one thing i wanna say otherwise she was really nice girl. Now i have my own country's room mate. She is now my best friend. She always help me. I also help her. We do everything togather. Still she is nice and i don't know about future. I hope she will be nice always with me.
• United States
22 Mar 10
I had horrible experiences with most of my roommates. My roommates were slobs and they hated the idea that my boyfriend came over to spend time with me during his work breaks (I lived five minutes away from where he worked). My roommates always expected me to make them dinner everynight then they would get mad if I was on the Internet (it was my computer and I paid for the Internet). My roommates were always late paying the rent (I solved that problem by talking to the landlady and asking her if she could have me on a seperate contract therefore when I moved out I could make sure that I would have no trouble renting elsewhere). They were always paying their portion of the electric bill late (I had to pay that, they gave me no choice). I did manage to have one great roommate after I moved out of my first apartment. I lived with an elderly woman. I paid 100.00 a month and helped her around the house. She was a wonderful 98 year old woman. I learned a lot from her and she always had dinner on the table for me.
@sikat101 (149)
• Philippines
12 Mar 10
I never had bad roommate experience. I lived in a dorm for eight years and I still kept in touch with some them. I have establish meaningful friendships with them. I love them. They have different personalities but matured enough to accept our differences. When there was heated arguments in the room, it is mostly about differences of opinions on certain issues like politics and other intelligent discussions. I am amazed at their steadfastness in defending their stand. After the discussion, we laugh and eat and have fun. All is well. Oh, how I miss them!
• Philippines
12 Mar 10
Hi fluffysue, I'm never lucky with roommate experiences. My first roommate is my close friend, when we're both reviewing for our board exam. We got along just fine, until she got on my nerves. She likes using my things, and she always ditch me for other people in our hall. We're supposed to be friends! and when her whole family came to visit, her mom even scolded me and given me the cold eye because I'm going out with my boyfriend. She's not even my mom! My second roommate is when I'm having my pre-employment training. I thought she's kind and quiet, coz I've known her during high school, but she turned out to be annoying and also got on my nerves a lot of times. She's very frank and blunt in a not-so-good way, she likes copycatting me, always want to be better than me. If we're shopping and I bought something, she would also buy just to prove she can also have what I have. And when it comes to money matters, she always borrows money from me and intentionally "forgot" to pay me back. I mind it a lot coz we are not yet employed, and my money still came from my parents and she just carelessly borrows it without returning. same as my things. As soon as my training is over, I didn't stay an extra day to that dorm and swore not to be her roommate again.
@kokowit (37)
• Philippines
12 Mar 10
I had both good and bad experiences with roommates because I've been living in a dorm sincce high school. For me, the best roommates were my high school roommates - we roomed together for 4 years and shared a lot about life. My worst experience was in my sophomore year in college. At first, we got along fine - she was friendly, we talked about a lot of things, and it was good to hang out with her. But then I got irritated with the little things that she does - if I come home late she actually asks "Where have you been?" like a mother or something. And she ALWAYS likes to be the center of attention - if we ignore her because we have other things to do she just wouldn't shut up. And she often goes through my notes and my laptop without asking for permission. My laptop actually broke down because she was overusing it and it was an old model. In the end we just complained to the landlord (there were 4 of us and she also kept bullying the other 2) and he informed her and her mother that she can only stay there until the end of the month. At the end of the semester, I also moved out because the rent was getting expensive.