How to be friends with your roommate: not necessarily bffs

Most of us haven’t had to share a bedroom in our lives. Personally I have never had to share a room so it was very different having another person in my personal space all of the time. When you live with a roommate one of the many worries you have is, if she’ll be nice or if you will be friends. Conflicts and differences will occur whether they are dealt with or not. Even if you aren’t best friends with her, it may be helpful to have some sort of friend relationship with her. I have some advice that will hopefully make your time with your roommate less stressful.

1. Spend time together

I’m not saying that you have to do EVERY SINGLE thing together because it can get annoying when you spend every waking moment with her. It helps to learn who she really is by spending time together. A simple way is grabbing food together at your dining hall. It is nice to always have someone to get food with. It’s better than eating alone. Penn State offers a lot of free activities especially on the weekends for Late Night. There are always a couple of movies playing at the HUB. They are usually fairly recent ones too.

    2. Find common interests

The easiest way to discover common interests is to spend time talking about them. Find out what her hobbies are and if you both have the same major. Having the same major can sometimes make it a lot easier to be friends. You’ll probably see them throughout your career at Penn State and it makes it easier to study together.

    3. It takes more than a few minutes to get to know her

Don’t expect to get to know her in the first few minutes you meet her. Some girls don’t open up right away and tell you their whole life story. Be patient and kind. You should also respect her boundaries and not push her to open up if she doesn’t want to. She’ll talk to you when she is ready.

All of my advice has a common thread and that is time. Friendships don’t form overnight, they need to grow and change. If all else fails it is okay if you don’t end up being friends with her. You may have no common interests but the important thing is to respect one another. Just try to be civil and not cause unnecessary battles.

By: Rebecca Aloi