How To Survive A Semester With A Horrible Roommate
Did you find yourself having to share the same dorm room as a horrible person? Been there. There are a few options you can choose to fix the situation. The first one is to complain about them to the person in charge of the building. You can also try and find someone who needs a new roommate and move in with them. Or you can submit yourself to the rest of the semester with that person.
Personally, I was the person who chose the last option. For many different reasons. The big one being that it was already halfway through the second semester by the time my roommate showed their true colors. If you’re like me and don’t want to deal with moving in the middle of the semester, then here are some tips on how to survive with a horrible roommate.
Celebrate the small victories
When you have a horrible roommate, one thing you have to learn to do is to celebrate the small victories you can get. That doesn’t mean making the peace or anything like that. It’s getting those little moments of revenge that only you will know about.
The victories don’t have to be anything that can ruin the horrible roommate’s life. It can just be things that mildly inconvenience them without them realizing it was you who set it into motion.
Are they a germaphobe? When they aren’t in the room, or are home for the weekend, touch everything they own. As long as you don’t displace anything you touch, there’s no way they would actually know that you touched it.
Invest in soundproof headphones
When a horrible roommate is making a lot of noise all day every day and you need to study, investing in soundproof headphones might just help your sanity. Or if you just want a reason to say that you didn’t hear them.
The headphones don’t even need to be playing anything. If they are soundproof and it’s obvious they are on your ears, your horrible roommate doesn’t have any right to complain that you didn’t hear them. Especially if you weren’t looking at them from the start and were focusing on something else entirely.
Soundproof headphones can block out a lot of noise, especially people’s voices who you don’t want to hear. And if you’re reading something or actually listening to something? Forget about it.
Sneakily listen when they are complaining to others
If your horrible roommate is complaining to other people about something horrible that happened to them, you can pretend to be doing something else but then listen in on their conversation. Does this make you a bad person to revel in someone else’s misfortune? Maybe. Maybe not.
You technically haven’t done anything. Karma has.
But there’s nothing wrong with enjoying the things Karma has done to the person who has been horrible to you. Just make sure you haven’t wished it upon them because the universe might think you had something to do with it.
A clever way to eavesdrop is to wear non-soundproof headphones and pretend to be listening to something. Or you could pretend to take a nap and face away from your roommate. If you don’t have a good poker face, it’s important that they can’t see you enjoying Karma at work.
It works even better if you use the headphone excuse and have a video playing on your laptop or phone, but it is muted. If your horrible roommate calls you out on smiling or laughing at them, you can quickly tap the mute button to allow sound again and ask them to repeat what they said. You clearly didn’t hear it since your sound was “on”.
Become friends with their friends
Nothing could irk your horrible roommate more than becoming friends with their friends. Especially if those friends end up being pretty cool anyway. It’s not their fault they fall for the front your roommate puts up.
Once they realize how great you actually are, they will begin to question the things your horrible roommate said about you. Just make sure not to complain about the roommate too soon into the friendship. People are quick to see through plans sometimes if you aren’t careful.
Another great thing about this strategy is that even though you might have to see your horrible roommate a lot more than you want, they won’t be able to be as bad to you when you are in a group. It’s even better if your new friends want to hang out in the dorm room a lot until late at night, just before you go to sleep.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Find places to study where they won’t be
If all else fails and you can’t stand to study in the same room as your horrible roommate, then you can always find a place to study where you know they won’t go. The more public the better just in case.
The library is a great place to escape since there are usually other students there. If your roommate does go, they have no choice but to be civil people. Unless they want to create a scene, which will then get them kicked out anyway.
This tactic might seem like your running away or giving them the power. But it’s also giving you the space you need to relax and focus on what needs to be done. It’s a lot easier to mentally block out a person while you’re watching a video than doing homework or studying.
Invest in your own mini-fridge
One of the best things you can do to avoid further conflict with your horrible roommate is to invest in your own mini-fridge. If they have their own, then you don’t have to worry about sharing a space for food or drinks with them either.
If they have alcohol in their fridge, take a close look at the rules for having alcohol in the dorm room. Some will allow alcohol as long as both tenants are of legal age. If they aren’t, then that’s something you can bust your roommate for.
It would be even better if they have a lot of people over all the time and you know some of them get angry at that person. Anyone could rat them out to the RA.
