A large part of many incoming college anxieties is having a roommate. Many people are used to having their own room with their own space. Sharing a room with a stranger can either be the best part of someone’s college experience or it may be the worst. Additionally, roommate culture can be impactful on one’s social and emotional wellbeing.

From my experience, a roommate can be more than just a person you live with. They may be your best friend or someone who makes your life hell; I’ve found that somewhere in between is the sweet spot.

Many people come into college expecting to be best friends with their roommates, but this is not the case for most. A lot of students don’t even talk or hang out with their roommate. These types of situations may work for some if there is a foundation of trust and comfort in the room.

Having a healthy dynamic with your roommate is something that needs to be established early on, and if someone’s roommates have tendencies that don’t align with the other person’s lifestyle, there may be tension. The tension between the roommates may bottle up and cause a mutual hatred of being in the room at the same time, despite the fact both people are paying and deserve to be there. A roommate relationship should consist of mutual respect. A healthy relationship with your roommate can be simply respecting each other’s belongings and each other’s space.

Disagreeing on the way you live can impact the nature of how you go about your day. Those with a unhealthy roommate relationship may avoid their room entirely, thus impacting their mental health with having no place to decompress. I can attest to the fact that having a bit of alone time every day is certainly beneficial to people’s emotional state.

Feeling unsafe or uncomfortable in one’s only safe space due to a roommate can make them difficult to live with. The last thing a college student wants after a long day is to come back to a toxic environment where they cannot live freely and comfortably.

Socially, roommate culture can get in the way of meeting new people and having them over to your room to hang out. Having a roommate you aren’t friends with often forces you to go out and meet new people in different places, which can be uncomfortable for many.

Conversely, some people go to college with their high school or childhood best friend as their roommate. These people likely had a completely different experience than I did. When a student goes in with their best friend, they have an automatic person on campus who they can hang out and meet new people with.

Going into college with your best friend is often successful, but there’s a possibility that keeping with the same person may hold them back from branching out.

Roommates can be a major factor that impacts your social and emotional state of mind. Creating a healthy relationship with roommates requires communication and honesty, which will ultimately create a better college experience overall.

Julia Bragg can be reached at [email protected]