Roommates

My first experience with a roommate was on a trip to Europe in 2000.  I went with my 3rd cousin, who was in her mid-60's.  She was notorious for snoring and the advice I received before I left was to fall asleep before she did or I never would.  As I have mentioned before, I have to have the tv on when I am going to sleep.  Well, between her snoring and my tv watching, we had several tense nights.


When I first went to college, I lived in a freshman dorm that was built for 2 people per room.  All we had was a giant room with two beds and two desks in it.  I met my first roommate at freshman orientation and it seemed like we would get along great.  When we actually started living together, we quickly realized we were complete opposites.  She liked to party, I didn't.  I wanted to be in bed early-ish, she came rolling in at 3 am.  By the time our 18th birthdays rolled around at the beginning of September, we were no longer roommates.

The roommate that I had after that was very strange.  She was 6' and slept in our tiny, and I do mean tiny, bathroom.  She had a perfectly good bed, but instead chose the bathroom as her sleeping area.  She was only my roommate for about 6 weeks and then she dropped out. 

When I returned from Christmas break, I had a new roommate.  She and I were roommates for the whole semester.  She was anorexic and would be throwing up at all hours of the day and night.  Since the bathroom was in our room, I heard it all.  It wasn't fun.  Also, I had a boyfriend and she wouldn't let him come in our room to pick me up.  He had to wait outside until I was ready.  She didn't feel uncomfortable with him around, she just thought that girls and guys should not be in a room together.  She was waiting for her wedding day to kiss her boyfriend (who was gay).

When I transferred to a different college, I moved into dorms, but they were like apartments.  There were 4 people to an apartment and we each had our own room.  2 people shared bathrooms and we all shared the kitchen and living room.  I definitely liked this arrangement better.  If we all wanted to hang out and chat, we could, but if we needed to study or wanted time to ourselves, we could go to our own rooms.

My first year at the new college, my 3 roommates were a freshman, a junior and a senior.  The freshman's room was right next to mine and she came and went at weird hours, but I guess that's what freshmen do.  The junior and I became good friends.  We are still friends now.  The senior and I didn't really mesh.  We didn't dislike each other, but we weren't really friends either.  The ironic thing is, I saw her the most.  I had early classes and she was working, so we would see each other in the mornings.

My second year, my 3 roommates were, a French exchange student, the junior (who was now a senior) I had roomed with the previous year and another senior.  The French exchange student, whose room was right next to mine, was interesting.  She had a lot of parties and got drunk a lot.  One night, when the other 3 of us were asleep, she came in quite inebriated.  She thought that my room was hers and she tried opening it.  When she realized that it wasn't her room, she muttered "oh, sheet" in her thick French accent and went on her way.  The other two were graduating in December and my internship, which began in January, was near home, so we all moved out at the end of the semester, leaving the French girl by herself.  Both of those girls were in my wedding, one was the maid of honor.

Now, my roommates are an amazing husband and an adorable little boy.  They are probably the best roommates I've ever had, but I will always remember my past roommates.