A dorm room is heaven. A dorm room is hell. When it's ninety-five degrees
outside, and the humidity is threatening to rust the hinges off the doors,
there is nothing more relaxing than coming into your dorm room--however small,
unsightly, smelly cramped and messy it may be--and sitting on a comfortable
chair and pulling off your socks. If you have a good roommate, chances are
he will come in shortly and do something similar, and you can spend an hour
or two calmly vegetating, usually in silence, while watching a re-run of a
World War II special on the History Channel.
Then there are the times when the dorm room is a prison. When everything
your roommate does gets on your nerves, when the people next door won't turn
their music down so that you can study for your big (physics/chemistry/Shakespeare/underwater basket weaving)
mid-term, when the idiotic construction workers have managed to rupture the
steam line yet again...
The important thing while living in a dorm, however eerily similar it may
be to a prison cell from a film noir on first glance, is to make it into
a space you're willing to exist in. Bunk the beds, build a loft, put down
carpet. For the love of God, put down carpet. The most dreary room in the
world is a freshman's, with its bare linoleum floor lit by the overhead
fluorescent light. Environmental design isn't the only necessity, of
course. You also have to think about your roommate.
If you take luck of the draw, and let the University choose your roommate
based on a few oddly selected questions (Smoke? Drink? Chew your toenails?),
chances are you'll do okay. There's always bad luck, though. One of my
friends drew a guy who had absolutely no sense of the appropriate. He would
come in while myself and others were in the room, say "Hi," and calmly drop
his pants. Considering he showered approximately once a week, this didn't
really seem necessary, especially when he would change immediately into an
outfit he'd worn the day before, and the day before that.
Whether you're lucky or not, though, there's little you can do to change
your roommate's personality. What you can do is change, or at
least manage, your own. Be accomodating. Don't be a pushover, of course,
or you'll be spending the whole year in a room that isn't yours. You can
give in on smaller things, though. Does he study best at midnight, with a
lamp on? Does this bother you? Turn over on your other side. Does he
put his papers on the dresser, exciting your neat-freakish ire? Say
something to him, politely--but don't argue about it. As long as it doesn't
directly affect you, you can be lenient. A comfortable atmosphere is
more important than a tidy desk. If you can be friends, even on a distant
level, with your roommate and suitemates, there will be a lot less stress
in your life--and don't believe the people who say that there isn't any
stress. Unless you go to a complete party school or just blow
off all your classes, there will be. It's a fact of life. Of course,
Super Smash Bros. Melee is never as fun as when you have a fifteen page
paper due the next day...
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