by Delayne Terra Buranek

Created on: March 16, 2009

I've certainly had my fair share of college roommates from hell, just as certain as I am that I've been that roommate myself at some point. From some of the horror stories I've heard from others, sometimes I think I was very lucky in my choices. Other times I've not been so lucky.

My first roommate ever was in the college dorm freshman year. We had bunk beds and I was relegated to the top bunk. We both had fears, hers was falling off from the top and mine was being squished by the top. They were both valid as they'd both happened to us before. Hoisting oneself up into a top bunk of a metal creaky bunk bed makes a lot of noise. I was always concerned with being a bad roommate that I was worried the noise would bother her when I got into bed. She however was never home so it wasn't a problem. Luckily as well that I sleep heavy because by the time she'd drag herself home I rarely did stir. My main issue with that roommate was that she kicked me out of the room some nights. True I didn't want to be in there when she was doing whatever it was she was doing, but couldn't she have gone elsewhere? And I will never know or understand why that chair was handcuffed to the bed.

My next roommate issue involves an apartment. I understand that I'm not the cleanliest person that I know. But there are certain areas that I'm very good at maintaining. One of them is the kitchen. Not one of them is the bathroom. Hers was the bathroom and definitely not the kitchen. We had it out a few times. I'd rather have the kitchen clean because you eat there. She'd rather have the bathroom clean because it's the bathroom. This was made very clear by the fact that she'd leave food in pans on the stove for days. No rinsing, no cleaning up. She just left them. We'd often times rebel each other by not cleaning either the kitchen or the bathroom. So I wasn't winning the best roommate prize then either. I was probably worse because as she was a bit of a downer personality and I would try to cheer her up. Only playing Shiny Happy People by REM over and over again often makes a person just more upset.

My last encounter wasn't so much the roommate from hell but the situation from hell. It was our last year and my two best friends and I from my dorm freshman year were living together. Three girls in a two bedroom apartment is a little cramped and tensions can get high no matter what. We had to have the extra girl, she was our best friend and we were concerned about her. She was conditionally let to finish school after her suicide attempt, the condition being that she lived with her friends. I had bought bunk beds, only this time I was relegated to the bottom bunk. Even though they drove me crazy we had fun. It was a good way to end the college years and the bad roommates.

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