I was relatively poor when going off to college, so I brought very little stuff with me (just my clothes essentially). In fact, all of my stuff *plus *all of my friend’s stuff fit into the trunk and backseat of my tiny car. My randomly selected roommate was from a wealthy family, so he already had a computer, a TV, a fridge, microwave, other furniture, bathroom stuff, etc. I told him that I had just planned on buying whatever I needed instead of hauling it to college (a total lie), but since he already brought everything . . .
College is about broadening your horizons. Be social! Get drunk once (but do it with friends who can watch out after you. As a priest of mine once said, ‘if you’re going to be stupid, at least be smart about it!’)
Also, this probably doesn’t apply to you, but Febreze is good. Use it judiciously.
Drunk? That’s what Faire is for! Honestly though, I just seem not to drink fast enough for it to affect me. That and I don’t like things that taste like alcohol. (Last Faire, I had a bottle of cider and a flask of buttershots. Over the whole weekend. Woo! I am a party animal.)
Besides, watching all the drunk people is great.
I have a feeling I’ll end up being the older, more reasonable sister.
Judiciously is right. Do not attempt to Febreeze a whole couch in the confines of a small, ill-ventilated dorm room. My friends did this, and ended up sleeping in the lounge for a few nights until the fumes dissipated.
Some advice from personal experience: (This only applies if you’ll have a roommate, though.) Do not be lab partners/group project buddies with your roommate if you’re on good terms with each other and want to keep it that way. It will seem like a great idea at first, but you’ll inevitably find out that one of you has a vastly different work ethic, and all the time you spend hanging out in the room will become awkward “why aren’t we working?” time. Stress will ensue. Ugliness will ensue. And if the universe has the same attitude toward you as it does toward me, it will send a Death Cold to both of you so that you can keep each other awake with hacking, even after you’ve spent the whole night on a project.
Here’s my college experience with roommates. Year 1 and 2 were in dorms (mandatory) and Year 4 was a house.
Year 1-
Roommate 1: Athletic bimbo girl. Nice, but we had nothing in common. We had the smallest room on campus so it wasn’t very relaxing. She moved out and into her best friend’s room. I have nothing against her.
Roommate 2: Drunken British Republican girl. I had to buddy up with somebody new and she seemed nice enough (little did I know that she was quiet just because she was sick at the time.) Just attended college for her MRS. Specifically wanted a boy who golfed and wore polo shirts. She went out and got drunk three times a week and then bragged about how she drank seven more shots after throwing up, etc. etc. Luckily our two rooms had a door in between.
Year 2-
Roommate 1: All of my other friends had buddied up, so I opted to pick a study abroad student from Japan. All I could do was look through their papers and try to pick the one that seemed to be the best match. She seemed nice at first, but as soon as she got a boyfriend (some Asianphile who went down the line of Japanese girls, she was his third choice) things started getting really weird because I didn’t like him. I was already stressed from being in a noisy hall (lots of Freshers and I was right across from the 24hr laundry room) and next door to a psychotic girl who argued LOUDLY with her boyfriend EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I took a lot of Nyquil pills to fall asleep. When one night I woke up from my strong Nyquil-induced sleep to find my bed shaking from the activities going on beneath me, I knew that it was time to get out. I moved into a suite with 3 other girls.
Roommate 2(L): I like her a lot. We were friends before and now she’s my closest college friend. I even lived in the same dorm (different rooms) when in Kyoto and we shared a house senior year.
Roommate 3(N): She was great too. She and L were best friends so I was jealous a little, but other than that she was awesome.
Roommate 4(J): She started out cool and then went crazy after a group of new boys moved into the dorm next door (returning from study abroad). She started ditching us and acting emo to get the attention of one of the boys. To make matters worse, she already had a boyfriend and L had made it clear that she was interested in said boy before J decided to swoop in. She would always complain about her “horrible” drama but then not reciprocate any empathy in return. She got a big head from being indie. I don’t miss her at all.
Year 4:
Housemate 1(L): I was happy with her, we were best friends in college.
Housemate 2(B): I was a little nervous about her. She seemed to be the artsy-fartsy indie vegan hippie type and I was worried that she’d be finicky and forceful on her views. We didn’t have much time to pick housemates because we needed to find a house by the end of Sophomore year for Senior year (we were gone abroad all of Junior year). B was actually pretty cool, nice, and while quirky I didn’t have any major qualms with her at the end. She usually hung out with Housemate 3.
Housemate 3(K): If I could do anything over again, it would be to kick K out and get somebody different. I can’t believe we were worried about B when we should have been worried about K all along! She seemed cool before study abroad, but the experience changed her for the worst. She became bossy, moody, controlling and just flat out bitchy. She would yell at my housemate for using her BOWL. There was just way too much drama with this llama to even put here. But of all the mistakes I made in college, having her as a housemate was the top one.
I guess the thing that I learned most is that not everyone is what they seem to be. Out of all my living mates, I would only want to repeat the process with 2 of them.