Good Morning: Single means freedom from awkward roommate showdown
My roommate doesn’t care how late I stay up or how early I wake.
He doesn’t care about my loud country music or what channel the television is on. He doesn’t care if dirty laundry piles up in the corner or if the room smells like chicken fingers for days after I microwave them.
Being in a Dietz single, I have no roommate, and I especially appreciate that this week. It’s the final chance to switch roommates – to get rid of that guy who likes loud country music and the chicken finger smell – and find someone more "your style." Students trade each other every year, and every year I see the same side effect from my Dietz room window: drama.
Drama is unavoidable since most changes are socially motivated. "She doesn’t like my friends," "he’s too short to fit in with the basketball guys," "she’s not in my sorority," etc. The best scenario is both students deciding at the same time they want a different roommate. But reality is much messier.
Let’s imagine that you are stuck with a country music lovin’, chicken finger cookin’ roommate such as myself, and you must tell him or her that "it’s over." I haven’t done it, but I imagine it’s slightly like a breakup, meaning it should be done as compassionately and swiftly as possible, but how?
When do you tell your roommate? Right before bed? No, the tension in the room would be too high to sleep. In the morning? No, that would seem a little sudden and tactless, as in:
"Morning"
(Yawn) "Yeah, good morning"
"Oh, by the way, someone else will be sleeping in my bed tomorrow. I’m moving out."
Or
"I noticed you snored again last night. I’m going to miss that about you when I get my new roommate next week."
And where do you break the news to your roommate? In the room itself feels sudden and tacky, so maybe you do it over a meal or outside where you can sit down and be frank. But now you have turned your roommate issues into a public spectacle.
What if you are on the other side of this "breakup?" You are the country music lovin’, chicken finger cookin’ student, but you see no error in your habits and tolerate your roommate just fine. Then your roommate turns to you and tells you that it’s over.
There’s only one way you can take this: personally. Trading roommates is like the cash for clunkers program, everybody wins except the clunker. "Clunkers" have but one defense: to get the jump on their roommates, to look for signs of tension and be the first to say that things aren’t working out.
And then get on the list for single room in Dietz.
