Roommates make or break the year

Marina Boyle, Staff writer

Having a roommate is something that many of us can be apprehensive about at first.

I remember receiving an email from my roommate a few weeks before school started and thinking that she sounded great, but I was skeptical of how much I could know a person simply from online communication.

I am very fortunate in that my first hunch was right and my roommate is awesome.

For me, having a roommate is an important part of the college experience, and is essential during the transition from your parents’ house to world of adulthood.

Roommates are helpful for lots of small things – to help you when you’re locked out, to replace the toilet paper, to wake you up when you sleep through your alarm.

Sharing our living space teaches communication, compromise and improved living habits. In many ways, having a roommate is a rite of passage.

That being said, it is not always a walk in the park. Particularly in Baldwin and McAuley, space can be an issue.

Furthermore, some people are naturally very private or introverted and find it hard to adjust to constantly communicating and spending time with others.

We all have annoying habits whether we realize it or not.

People can be clingy, noisy or have conflicting sleep schedules.

I have friends tell me that their roommate either never talks to them, or talks way too much.

A friend once told me that his roommate embodies “every single one of my pet peeves.” So, sometimes not ideal.

Evidently, not all roommates are created equal.

Sometimes people are simply not suited to living with one another. The level of happiness you’ll find with your roommate largely depends on how well your compatibility on paper translates into real life.

Boise State University found that 25 percent of students nationally reported college roommate problems.

While this is not optimal, it is certainly reassuring that approximately three-fourths of us are happy.

As an international student, I was particularly invested in the roommate quest because my roommate would be the only person I would know when I arrived on campus.

I got lucky. My roommate is amazing, and we are really similar.

Her family has adopted me into theirs within a few short weeks and I always have a second home here. We have similar majors, and we like a lot of the same things.

Sharing your living space is definitely a challenge, but roommates are the best for certain things.

When you get along with each other, it’s like having a sleepover with your best friend every single night.

There’s always someone to turn to, to laugh with and to be there when you need to vent.

You can get a second opinion on everything from classes to take to clothes to campus events.

Advice is always available and hopefully helpful.

I think that having to learn how to live alongside someone else is an essential experience.

Roommates are essential in achieving personal growth, full socialization skills and communicational development.

It seems to me that Mercyhurst does us a great service by providing us with the opportunity to share our space with others.