People who live in John Jay made a wise choice… the single (room) life is the life for me.

Upon arriving to Columbia, many first years were getting ready to deal with a lifestyle shift never before considered: having a roommate. Although many of us grew up sharing rooms with siblings, or having a roommate at boarding school, college roommates are a whole new ball game. So, new Bwogger Chenoa Bunts-Anderson decided to ask around and see how people are coping with sharing a room for the first time. 

The first week away from home can be overwhelming for a number of reasons. You’re afraid you’ll get lost on the subway, you suspect that you’ve accidentally called people the wrong name and they’re not correcting you because they don’t know yours, and sometimes the dining hall food just sucks. However, it’s not expected that maniacal giggling will wake you up in the middle of the night.

Lying there in the dark, I had a sudden realization: My new roommate was a serial killer. Or just manically giggles in her sleep. Same thing.

Struck by curiosity, and haunted by her occasional 3 am sleep-giggling, I decided to find others getting to know their new roommates. These are their stories:

“It took me two weeks to finally meet my roommate while she was sober.”

“I found a note on my door telling me to not walk on, or wake, my roommate while she napped on the floor between classes.”

“While I was writing my first UW paper my roommate transferred a party of drunk people into our double.”

“While I had a friend staying over for the night, I started having a sex dream and woke her up. She stayed awake. The whole time.”

“My roommate came back to our room drunk and proceeded to read the Iliad while laughing hysterically.”

“I went to John Jay with my quad-mates and asked them if anyone had a bag to sneak the bananas I was stealing out in. One of them said yes, and then put the bananas between her breasts. She also jiggled them around a bit. So I told her to keep the bananas.”

“My roommate listed me as her emergency missing-person contact after I told her she couldn’t.”

“When I go to sleep my roommate comes over to my bed and passive-aggressively starts cleaning my side of the room.”

“My roommate still hasn’t unpacked. I don’t even think I need to explain more than that.”

Conclusively: Roommate’s suck (except mine you’re the best person in the world please don’t hurt me while I sleep).

John Jay via Wikimedia