Roommates

One of the most exciting times for a college-bound student is finding out their roommate. You wait all summer long for the day you find out whom you will live with for the school year. When I found out my roommate, I had mixed feelings. Of course, these feelings were not generated simply by checking my roommate’s name and drawing a conclusion about her. Like many roommates-to-be, we added each other on Facebook. After I Facebook-stalked her page, I was able to make a few assumptions. On one hand, she seemed like a typical college roommate. However, she seemed like a girly girl, which somewhat intimidated me. This is because I am neither a girly girl nor a tomboy. Plus, she seemed popular unlike me. Nonetheless, I kept a positive attitude until she messaged me on Facebook one day.

My supposed roommate informed me that she had switched roommates. She had been at RIT for the summer program, and requested her old roommate whom she had already befriended. I was taken aback, but responded considerately. Then, I had to wait a day or two to find out who my real roommate would be. Once again, we added each other on Facebook and I tried to gather information about her from her page.

This time, I found out that my ex-roommate wasn’t lying, that is because my new roommate was first supposed to be roommates with my ex-roommate’s previous roommate. Got all that? So after we got that settled, my new roommate and I talked to each other about ourselves. However, there was one big detail that I had already assumed by looking at her profile picture, which she nonchalantly mentioned in a list of many other facts about herself. She was a lesbian.

Now I’m sure there are other straight people out there, besides me, that would be scared to find this out about their roommate. Of those people, some would immediately want to request a new roommate. In addition, my new roommate was a butch, which I thought would be even more intimidating than a girly lesbian. But most importantly she was still very nice and friendly. Although I was certainly worried about having a gay roommate, I still wanted to give her the chance that my ex-roommate didn’t give me.

During my first weeks here at RIT, my main concern was getting dressed in the room. I was clearly wary of changing with her in the room, but I knew she had a girlfriend, which eased my nerves a bit. It also helped that when I took a shower, I didn’t walk back to my room in a towel or robe. I always come out of the bathroom dressed. Both of us always changed, and continue to change, in our separate corners of the room. I have never caught her watching me change, even though my back is always to her.

Soon, I felt much more comfortable around her. There are still some awkward moments, but they are bound to occur. It always takes time to adjust to a change, in my case having a gay roommate for the first time, and getting accustomed to dorm life. In the end, having a gay roommate isn’t as strange as people make it out to be.

If you want some basic tips about living with roommates, check out this link. Most importantly, follow the guidelines for making a roommate contract. These are probably required at your school, and definitely at RIT, so do your best to make a contract that is reasonable and make compromises with your roommate when necessary.

Do you have an interesting roommate story, comment, or question? Share it in a comment below for me to address. If you are fresh out of ideas, visit this page for some hilarious ways to confuse your roommate.