summercomfort | On Roommates

I think there are two types of roommate scenarios: You're either "in", or "out".

"In". She's your best friend, you do everything together. Although this situation creates very cozy rooming environment, I can see problems with it. No matter how good friends you are, there must be some differences, and usually it's hard to then branch out differently from your best friend/roommate. You have fun together, but you're not allowed to have fun while apart.

"Out". She's decided that you're too weird/different to really understand each other. So even if you go to the same activities and sit at the same dining hall table, you're not there together, because you function in different social groups. The rooming environment may be a little chilly, but as long as you're courteous to each other, you can both be "independent". The difficulty in this case is being courteous to each other and meeting each others' needs/habits/uses of the room while still maintaining civility, and not degenerating into hatred or frustration. There is also the damage on self esteem, etc, of being excluded.

The paint is washed out (mostly. washing machines are god's invention), she left a note of apology, we exchanged two words at the dining table while not looking at each other. Overall a decent "out" experience.