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I have definitely had my share of bad roommates. However, my last roommate was my least favorite of them all. She was an international student who had no interest in making friends outside her international student group. There were so many little things that really got on my nerves (I learned I have more pet peeves than I thought). In reality though it wasn't the cultural barrier or the little things that made living with her a nightmare it was her complete lack of respect for other people.
Now I understand that people have boyfriends that they want to hang out with and what not. Well, he was never in his own room. They were always in mine. His roommate had got sick of them being in his room that they decided to always be in mine instead. Which was fine, annoying at times but whatever. What I didn't appreciate was that they would borrow my chair, when I wasn't there and anything I had on it at the time they would throw on the floor. They also had this thing with turning the heat in our room up to 87 degrees...even in the summer months. I would turn it off or just down to a normal temperature and wake up in the middle of the night sweating because they had turned it back on. I don't know about other people but I really can't sleep well when it is hot. It was a constant battle.
On top of that, we were on completely opposite schedules, she had morning classes and I had afternoon/night. When she would get up in the morning she would turn on all the lights in the room. Even though her side of the room was near the door and bathroom where she could have just turned on the light near the door (and closet) and the one to the bathroom and been just fine. Now I can sleep through noise just fine, bright florescent lights at 6 in the morning I cannot. Especially when she would leave them on when she left. So fine, I got an eye mask and that kind of helped, but what really baffeled me was how she felt she could turn the lights on and off any time she pleased. She would come back to the room and decide to take a nap with her boyfriend of course and make me sit in the dark from 3-7 (it was winter and it got dark early)...There was a week or so where I had a cold and wanted to go to bed at 9 one night when she wasn't there, when she got back she turned the lights back on a proceeded to be oh so loud. By the time I left I wanted to strangle her and had a not so strange aversion to the language she spoke too. Actually by the time that I left I wasn't staying in my dorm room too often because I was just that fed up and would jump on any opportunity to hang out with friends just to not be in my room.
I honestly think that colleges should allow more options for roommate issues. I get that they are coming from the perspective that you aren't always going to get along with everyone and this is supposed to teach you how to tolerate others or something like that but still. My school was all, oh you guys can just talk it out...that's it. My roommate could be consistently having sex while I was in the room and they would still say that it just something we have to work through via communication. When we signed up for dorms we were asked two questions, do you smoke and could you live with someone who does? That's it.
*end rant*
Sorry I got a little carried away. I do like knowing that it wasn't just me who had some awful roommate experiences, but I feel bad for those who have yet to experience them, because almost everyone I know has had at least one bad roommate story.
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