Pop It Off
For my sophomore year of college, I was randomly assigned a roommate in the dorms because I didn’t have anyone else to room with. I ended up living on a floor of all freshman girls including my roommate, J. The day I moved in, I tried making small talk with her because we hadn’t talked during the summer when we were given our roommate assignments. She seemed nice at first and very quiet but I’m also pretty quiet so it wasn’t a huge issue.
I brought the TV, DVD player and refrigerator for our room and told her the first day that she’s welcome to use any of it. But, I noticed shortly after moving in that something wasn’t right. For some reason, she would never watch TV in our room. If she wanted to watch TV, she would go into the main lobby of the dorm where there was a big screen TV. This wasn’t because I was already watching TV or studying, I’d be on Facebook or talking to someone online but not using the TV. She also didn’t buy food to put in the fridge. She would buy pop but would drink it warm. I just thought this was very odd, especially when I brought all of that for both of us to share. It wasn’t that I told her she couldn’t use any of it.
All of this went on for the entire first semester of school. When we returned in January, the last straw came when one of my friends told me that our room smelled like a mixture of BO and popcorn. I knew this was because this girl did not shower. She would go a few days without showering and lived in sweat clothes. I was so grossed out that I had become used to the smell in our room and ended up moving to a completely different dorm and getting my own room. For the rest of the college, that girl and I never spoke again!
You were upset she didn’t use your fridge and chose to watch tv in a common area rather than in a shared room? Uh, either something big was cut out of this story or you need to learn that bringing things to share doesn’t require that people use them.
Fine, the not showering part is gross, though.
That was your WORST roommate? Lame.
Have to say apart from the BO I think she sounds better than average, she was probably just shy and didn’t feel comfortable using your stuff since you weren’t friends.
She didn’t liberally help herself to your stuff and this makes her your worst roommate?? Granted that smelliness is a major offense, but either your missing out on a good chunk of the story or you need to take a chill pill and realize that some people are just a little more excessively modest than others. She was probably just shy and thought she might step on toes by using your stuff all the time.
I completely agree with these other comments. This MVWR is lame. Just because she doesn’t want to use your stuff, she’s a bad roommate? Wow! You’re the bizarre one.
I usually try to be positive & look for some redeeming quality in these stories but with this one I just can’t. Lame.
So your roommate was quiet, didn’t want to interact with you, drank warm soda, and left your stuff alone? I don’t get why that’s horrible. The not bathing thing is always nasty, but I don’t get how the other stuff is supposed to negatively impact you.
Not speaking with your randomly assigned roommates isn’t anything unusual, either, especially if you didn’t have anything in common with them. I don’t talk to any of my college roommates and most of my friends don’t either.
Were you expecting you and your roommate to become close friends or something and then were disappointed when she just wanted to keep to herself?
Were you guys expected to use a communal shower? I suspect that many a freshman’s (or freshwoman’s) stinkiness could be ascribed to avoidance of being naked with strangers.
As for the rest– what’s the problem?
I had to read the story very carefully as I couldn’t understand what the problem was, I get it now, it’s the lamest most boring MVWR story ever.
she does sound kind of strange and anti social but, considering that i’ve roomed with a patholigical liar, a raving anti-semite and a spoiled rich princess, this sounds pretty tame. however, the BO is disgusting. I don’t understand how people can live like that!
Pretty lame… THE LAST STRAW… Made me laugh because she didnt do anything wrong. She drank warm pop. Who did that hurt? She left the room to watch Tv. who did that hurt?
I was that kind of roommate. I didn’t use the tv or microwave or liberally help myself to my roommate’s stuff because I knew she was a generous person and I didn’t want to take advantage of her kindness. Neither did I feel that it was necessary for me to use the microwave in our room when I could always use the microwave in the lounge, which was free to use for all dorm residents. Maybe it was something like that for this one. Nothing wrong with that!
BO is a different matter, but the rest? Lame.
I don’t understand why room mates never explain to each other that they stink and need to take a shower. “Monkey can’t smell his own smell” comes to mind. Part of being room mates is to help each other learn about what is accetable in communal life.