Home Sweet Home? Not So Much.

My younger brother, Rocco, is a senior in high school and is already starting to look into various colleges of interest, touring and getting the word on the street about each different school.

Tear.

Lately, I’ve been trying to think of different ways I could help him out, obviously being an experienced collegiate girl of ceaseless wisdom. Ha. But when I think of college and what kinds of things he should be researching and also looking forward to, I think of many different aspects – the quality of the school, campus beauty, a new level of classes, extracurricular activities and, of course, living with roommates.

And that’s when a flood of horror stories immediately deluged my thoughts and I became a nervous big sister.

I remember reading a “Letter to the Editor” in The Post at the end of my freshman year, posted to the Web site on May 13, 2008, about another Ohio University freshman, Chris Uihlein, who had a horrifying roommate experience. He decided to take a chance and branch out by being a random roommate in a triple already chosen by two other boys – two other uninviting, homophobic boys.

Through Facebook, these other boys realized that Chris was gay. They asked him to retract his decision to live in the room, but at that point, it was too late for Chris to back out. The boys retorted with cruel messages and nasty, demeaning Facebook statuses that declared their disgust for his sexuality, making it all that much more difficult for Chris to be an openly gay person, which is something that everyone should have the utmost respect for to begin with.

Those boys slipped up that day by being so completely closed-minded that they may have missed out on a respectful, fun roommate and potentially great friendship. They also messed up in assuming that Chris, being gay, would automatically lust after them and rub off on them, or whatever they assumed about him that constituted their inhumanity toward him. It’s sickening, really.

I tend to think that roommate blunders can make some of the most fascinating (and for the people involved, most irritating) blunders. Though I’m willing to talk about some of my favorite – and by favorite, I mean wildest – instances, I do want to keep all names anonymous out of respect for those involved. Therefore, all names used in the following anecdotes have been changed.

A girl I recently met, Rachel, is a freshman here at OU. Her roommate, Megan, is involved in Campus Crusade, an extracurricular activity that focuses on devotion to Christ. While Rachel is supportive of Megan’s activity, Megan disagrees with Rachel’s decision to drink and indulge in some of the new things that college has presented to her. Instead of being mutually supportive, Megan chastises Rachel and makes it known that she disagrees with Rachel’s lifestyle.

A friend of mine, Sarah, an OU junior, had a roommate freshman year who chose not to be cleanly and pick up after herself. It got bad enough to the point that her roommate stuck a dirty pad to the floor – sticky side down, dirty side up. And it sat there for far longer than it should have. Sarah was disgusted at the site of it, not to mention the germs and health hazards that her roommate’s actions caused.

Matt, another OU freshman I recently met, has a roommate with an intriguing issue – porn addiction. Though Matt’s not entirely sure that it’s a clinically diagnosed, actual addiction, from what he has seen, he feels as though it is. Apparently, his roommate watches pornographic films and videos entirely too often.

These situations amaze me. While I understand personality clashes, I also think it’s important to at least try to bend a little, maybe just enough to just meet someone in the middle and coexist peacefully.

My other two roommates, Morgan and Allyson, have been living together since freshman year. I just kind of jumped on that bandwagon this fall. They get along famously, though their personalities are quite different. The two of them have really learned to make it work. The following videos are nice displays of their roommate teamwork. Pay no mind to any other part of each video other than the clips I specifically directed to play, as the other parts of the videos are irrelevant.

Here's a clip from my interview with Morgan about life with Allyson:

Morgan gives a tour of the apartment, showing the difference between her and Allyson:

I wholeheartedly back the phrase: “To each his own.” But when “his own” is affecting another’s “own” or even another’s well being, then I think it’s time to cut the shit and learn to share space.

Until next time, cheers!