It’s that time of year again: time to start thinking about roommates for next semester (although it’s also midterms season? Maybe spring break for some? There’s no right or wrong answer to this one).
Chances are, you’ve probably thought a little bit about whom you’re living with. Chances are, some of you might want to become roomies with your best friend (for all intensive purposes, I’m going to refer to your best friend roomie for the remainder of this post as your BFR).
Maybe you and your BFR are planning on getting matching duvet covers.
Maybe you and your BFR are planning to pool in your extra cash to get a PS3 for the room.
Maybe you and your BFR are planning to bake and make a room-cleaning schedule and generally live in harmony and joy and amicability for the entire year.
I am here to tell you right now that there is a 0-1% chance that will happen. I am also here to actively persuade you that rooming with your best friend is a pretty bad idea and that it should be avoided at all costs.
1. You’ll never truly be alone.
True, friends are a great source of support but there comes a time in every person’s life when they just want to… You know, work out their problems by themselves.
With your BFR, it can be hard to get that quality alone time seeing as you guys are living within five feet of another.
Whether you’re the culprit or it’s your friend, one of you may begin to get clingy around the other. Think about it this way: you spent a lot of time together and depended on each other as best friends, but now you’re roommates… the clinginess could become unbearable.
2. Weird (and maybe annoying) quirks are bound to reveal themselves.
Maybe your BRF blasts music until 4 AM. Maybe your BFR never washes dishes. Maybe your BFR has their significant other over every weekday and twice on weekends.
No matter what, the sooner you start noticing these things, the more they’ll annoy you. Chances are, you’ve got a few habits you may find normal, but your BFR will find horrifying.
3. Fights happen.
When two people live in such a small space, conflict is bound to occur. Add to that the stress of school and a social life and it’s a recipe for disaster.
Something, no matter how small, could very well be the straw that breaks you and your BFR’s relationship.
You depend on your best friend as your confidant and someone you can talk to about conflicts in your life, so what happens when the conflict is between you and your best friend? Who do you talk to? It can become very awkward and push the two of your apart.
4. Stagnation.
You’re comfortable living with your BFR so you just head straight home after class. That’s it: day in and day out. Never anything new. For an entire semester.
Sure, you guys may have clubs to sit in on and sports to practice, but at the end of the day it will literally be just you and your BFR. Yawn.
And who knows? Maybe the two of you do everything together INCLUDING clubs, organizations, sports…. If you ask me, that’s just too much of one person.
In conclusion, don’t live with your best friend.
Yes, you may love each other now, but think about how things might change in six months from now with new sets of problems to overcome, those very problems that have the potential to turn a once-happy alliance into this (thanks, Kenny Loggins!)
Why couldn’t i have read this before I decided roomed with one of my close friends in high school. I feel like I’m suffocating in her presence. We almost always do everything together. we eat together, do laundry together, walk to class together, everything! I always go back to the dorm after class everyday because i know she is expecting me. She wont go to the cafeteria to eat either unless I go with her. The lack of alone time is killing me and i feel like I’m losing myself because of it. She is perfectly content with spending her days (wasting away in my opinion) inside the dorm watching her variety shows. Her socializing skills go as far as the occasional omegle. Whenever I make friends and we plan on doing something, she always asks to tag along but she makes it awkward the whole time because she pretty much hates everyone. When i want to go somewhere i go ninja super star agent double oh seven to sneak out of our dorm without her noticing. I feel like I am being held back so much by her. The days when i am by myself is the best. And to top it off, she changed majors and is taking all the same classes as me next semester. I’m going crazy and dont know how much more of her company i can take!!!