Roommates: horror stories and sweet tales

Sharing a room can lead to awkward situations and fond memories

Image by: Kendra Pierroz

When it comes to freshmen roommates, the choices are limited; it can be a complete nightmare or absolute bliss. 

I can still vividly remember the day I received my roommate assignment. I was an eager frosh, anxious to see who I’d be living with for the next year, and there it was: my name accompanied by the words, “triple room A, Victoria Hall.”

At the time, I was so excited. Here I was, thinking I was gaining two life-long friends all at once. After all, your roommates in college are supposed to become your best friends, right? 

I was sorely mistaken. 

While my roommate situation started off on a good note, having late night cuddle sessions and sharing our deepest and darkest secrets, it quickly took a turn for the worst. 

I often had extremely disturbed sleeps with people constantly knocking on the door and barging into the room, without care to use their indoor voices. When I was feeling under the weather and wanted to go to bed early, I had to go to sleep to a party happening in my own room. 

Things like my food being eaten and my alcohol being drank without my knowledge or permission became frequent issues. But while my roommates and I were inseparable, it’s the little things that started to take a toll on me. 

For instance, locking the door. There was a time when I found myself locked out of our room after my shower, dripping wet in a towel. I sheepishly had to knock on my neighbour’s door and ask for help. It was extremely embarrassing, especially when the front desk representative was insistant that I personally come down to the lobby to have the issue sorted. 

“What part about I’m in a towel soaking wet aren’t you understanding?” I thought.

And then there was the boy situation. When each of us were either dating or hooking up with someone and we had to coordinate who was having who over, and when. Our coordination consisted of texting within our group chat, which wasn’t exactly fool-proof. 

One night, my roommate accidentally walked in on me having sex with my boyfriend with the lights on. She saw everything — mainly him buck naked.

I came into my roommate situation with an open mind, thinking these roommates would be my life-long friends. Today, I barely exchange words with them.

Meaghan, ArtSci ’17, had a similar experience living in a quadruple room. Her last name has been omitted so her roommates can’t be identified. 

Meaghan didn’t get along with her three other roommates. It’s hard living with one girl, let alone three. Meaghan’s roommates always kept things interesting, whether they were getting frisky with other floormates or playing with themselves.  

One roommate had a fly colony breeding in her mini fridge. 

“She was also a serial masturbator who had no issue letting it be known to the rest of the room at 3 a.m. that she was enjoying herself,” Meaghan  said.

Another roommate had a spooky Spock doll, which Meaghan believed watched her as she slept. 

“Apparently living with three other people simply was not enough of a punishment,” Meaghan said. 

But this isn’t to discourage you. For many people, having a roommate can be tough, and at times, unbearable. But for others, a roommate can be their best friend. Luckily, a best friend scenario emerged when Jeff Zhang, Comm ’18, moved in with his longtime friend, who he’d known since grade 4. 

Upon moving in together, Zhang felt a little anxious: “I guess it was nice to see my roommate after summer, but I was still nervous because I didn’t know if we would get along and if our lifestyles would complement each other.”

Although they both completed a roommate agreement, they soon found themselves breaking every rule in it. 

“We said we wouldn’t have alcohol, but we did. We said we wouldn’t touch each other’s stuff; but we also did, especially with each other’s candy. We also said we would clean after ourselves, but we soon realized that two lazy guys living together would eventually result in our room turning into a man cave.” 

Despite Zhang and his roommate breaking each other’s rules, they did so with love and partial respect.

“Even when we used to take pictures of each other really late at night and blackmail each other if we wanted something from one another,” Zhang said. 

After living together for a while, the boys began to develop a bromance: “I noticed that we started to say the same things and finish sentences together, which was weird.”

While the boys never seriously argued, Zhang explained that they bickered about cleanliness, especially during exam season. He recalls their ceramic dishes getting so dirty that they ended up tossing them in the garbage. 

“All in all, having a roommate is a great experience because it forces you to help each other with homework, share laundry detergent, wake each other up for class and go to parties dressed as giant hearts together.”

Today, Zhang and his roommate are moving in together with two other housemates for their second year at Queen’s.

“Having a roommate creates a bond that might last throughout university,” he said. “There will be challenges, but also memorable moments.”

While living with another person can prove to be extremely difficult, there were moments that I will cherish forever. 

For awhile, my roommates were my lifeline — my absolute best friends. No matter what, I always had someone to share my day with, edit my papers, encourage me to socialize and get drunk with on the weekends. Some of our best moments were the three of us cuddled together in a single bed after having too much to drink. 

At Christmastime, we put up a seven-foot tall artificial Christmas tree and spent most of our nights sharing secrets as we stared up at the rainbow coloured lights above our heads. 

Even though I don’t have a relationship with those girls anymore, I know these are cherished memories I would never have experienced if it weren’t for them.

All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.

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