The College Diaries | Five Types of College Roommates

So, as some of you know, I'm currently in my first year of college. And unfortunately with college comes the aspect of living in a dorm room, usually with a roommate and that roommate can be a hit or miss. Over the course of the year I've heard countless roommate stories and experienced some myself and wanted to share some stories and advice.

1. The Unsatisfied 

Beginning near and dear to me is the unsatisfied roommate. This is the roommate that doesn't appreciate anything you do, whether it be cleaning out the fridge fungus that grew because of something she forgot or tidying up the room. She will always think you are a "subpar" roommate even though you literally never get in her way. She is constantly making up unreasonable rules to make your life difficult.

Story: The Unsatisfied has a very sensitive nose and is constantly complaining how the room smells bad. Over the weekend, the custodians don't take out the trash. Over the three day weekend, the trash cans are overflowing with garbage and begins to smell on the floor. My friend comments how the smell is too strong, the Unsatisfied says "Oh I got used to it." Days later, the Unsatisfied walks into their dorm room and says "something smells" and proceeds to open the window in freezing weather because she can't stand the smell (which doesn't exist).

Advice: Wrap yourself in blankets and ignore her, she's not worth your time.

2. The Sexually Active 

Coming into college with little to no dating experience, this one is probably the hardest for me to comprehend. This roommate doesn't consider that she's living with someone but rather is constantly bringing boys into her room. After a long day of classes, research, extracurriculars and everything else a typical college student does, the last thing she needs is to come home to her roommate naked with some boy she barely knows.

Story: The story begins with my friend already having a pretty stressful week. Finals are just around the corner and she has several essays and exams to study for. As a good college student she decides to sleep a little early Saturday night so she can wake up early the next morning to maximize productivity. As she's falling asleep the Sexually Active comes in, drunk, with a boy and they begin going through the bases right as she's in the room. After a bit of yelling on her part, the Sexually Active huffs and leaves, coming back 30 minutes later giving the boy her bed while she took the other bed in the room (my friend had three roommates). The next morning she decides enough is enough and tells Sexually Active that it's not appropriate to bring unknown boys into their room at the dead of night and Sexually Active replies "Yeah that's true, I didn't know his name either"

Advice: Have a bullhorn on hand for such events.

3. The Borrower 

The Borrower is the roommate who takes the phrase "mi casa es tu casa" way too seriously. They're way too entitled to your belongings and next time you're missing a pair of underwear or a sock, the first place you look is in their drawers. When you go home for the weekend, they let all their friends sleep in your bed and use your pillow without asking permission. But of course, this only goes one way, you're not allowed to use any of their stuff (but odds are you probably don't want to).

Story: My friend lives fairly close to home so she frequently goes home over the weekend. Unfortunately in her absence the Borrower lets all of her friends sleepover in my friend's bed and when she returns, the bed is unmade with the pillows strewn everywhere, a clear indication that someone's been messing with her stuff.

Advice: Put forks underneath the bedsheets to prevent unwanted people on your bed.

4. The Elusive

This is probably the second best type of roommate to have. This is the person you never realize are there. Sometimes your run into each other in the morning, but both of you have separate groups of friends and completely different schedules so you never run into each other. You get along enough to live together but not enough to call each other friends. Their presence is neither a benefit nor a bother.

Advice: Leave her alone, don't tempt the Beast.

5. The Best Friend 

Now if you're really lucky, you get the Best Friend. Whether this was because you've pre chosen your roommate or happen to be really lucky with a random roommate, you and the Best Friend are inseparable. You don't mind borrowing each other's stuff, you eat at the dining hall together all the time, you genuinely like each other and are thankful you're living together. You're even part of the same friend group and planning on living together for the next four years of college.

Advice: Go buy a lottery ticket, your luck has peaked.

These are only some of the roommates out there, but I'm sure there are more. Let me know if you guys have any roommate stories, I would love to hear them!

The College Diaries | The Time I Ran for President

It's been quite a while since I've been able to post an update. While I could say I had a bunch of homework and tests and whatnot to keep me busy, I'll admit that it's just hard too find the motivation to write something and post it. But here I am with some amount of renewed motivation, ready to tell you all about my run for president.

So back in May when I finally decided which college I wanted to attend, I also wanted to run for President of my class. And about a week or so ago, I made it official by submitting my letter of intent.

This isn't a post about how I thought I was going to lose and then somehow got enough votes to win. Cutting straight to the chase, I lost, but let me tell you why running for president might have been the best thing I've done for myself since getting to college.

I'm an extreme introvert, which is apparent by the fact that on a Saturday night instead of being out partying, I'm here writing this post. So socializing doesn't necessarily come easy to me. Running for president gave me an excuse to talk to people. I admit, I got annoying sometimes constantly telling people to vote for me, but hey, it's better than nothing. People began to know my name and associated my name with a face.

The majority of my campaign was talking to people and telling them to vote for me. And even if they didn't vote for me, it was a great way to meet new people and get a conversation started. I love being able to walk to class and see at least five people I know wave and say hi to me and vice versa.

Basically, moral of the story: Run for president. 

The College Diaries | The Time Being Self-Conscious Conquered my Life

It's Friday and it's been yet another week at college. Honestly at this point I feel like I've already been here years yet it's barely been two weeks. Feelings of anxiety and homesickness are definitely not as common. I've finally established regular eating and sleeping patterns and overall I'm not hating the experience.

Classes started this week and I don't think I've ever been happier to be back in a classroom. There's something about the teach/learn interaction that is so straightforward and beneficial that I just love; proclamations of a true nerd, am I right? But seriously, for me succeeding inside the classroom is exponentially easier than succeeding outside the classroom. In the real world everything isn't typed up in convenient PowerPoints or condensed into a textbook. Sometimes we have to gamble and assume which, more times than not, doesn't end how we want it to.

But today I actually want to talk about my difficulties inside the classroom. I like to think I'm a fairly intelligent person. Subjects that usually frustrate the normal student aren't as bad for me and so far my classes have reflected that. Even though I'm taking an advanced course typically meant for upperclassmen and graduate students, it doesn't seem like an extremely hard class, material-wise. Though what is hard for me is discussion. Raising my hand to ask a question or give an answer. The potential of being wrong looms over me and my mind immediately associates being 'wrong' with being 'stupid' and scares me from even trying. Every time the teacher asks the question, I almost immediately have an answer in my mind but by the time I get the courage to vocalize my answer, someone has already answered.

Being so self-conscious of myself and what others think of me really limits me, both academically and socially. There's always some worry going through my mind. What if people think I'm a nerdy know-it-all? What if they think I'm dumb? What if they think I'm mean? What if they think I'm clingy? But the truth is, people don't think about me nearly as much as I think they do. Don't get me wrong, sometimes they do. But if those people are really analyzing you that much, maybe they aren't necessarily worth your time.

I agree it's not as easy as it sounds. But next time I find myself hesitating because of other people I'm just going to think "F*** it, who cares?" and do it. So today I decided to run for the President of my class. I refuse to be intimidated and I refuse to be submissive. If I win, great, and if I don't, oh well at least I tried. If there's something you're hesitant about doing, I say go for it. Don't let other people hold you back.

Those are my thoughts for this week. Now begins my first official weekend at college, so I'll let you know how that goes. 

The College Diaries | Pros and Cons of the College Life

As high schoolers we dream of going to college. We dream of having the infinite freedom of living away from our parents. No one to nag us or interfere in our lives. And while college is a fantastic and completely worthwhile experience, it's not absolutely flawless.

PRO: Freedom. 

This is the biggest and by far most common pro. We can basically do whatever we want, be wherever we want, eat whatever we want. There is no one nagging us to eat or sleep. I have been at college for about six days and for so many of those days we've stayed up until one or two in the morning just sitting and talking, something I normally wouldn't have been able to do at home. We even get freedom inside our classroom. Finally we can take classes and subjects we actually like rather than just fill a quota.

CON: No privacy/ alone time 

As an only child one of the things I cherished most was my alone time. Time I could talk to myself and just sit and think, allowing myself to relax and unwind. It was time I didn't have to socialize or keep up a reputation. And in college that time is exponentially smaller. First of all, most people have a roommate. And since you share such a small space with someone, it's fairly difficult to find time to have the room to yourself. And second, you live in a building filled completely with other people your age. People are constantly going in and out of rooms and going up and down the stairs, so complete silence and aloneness is hard to achieve.

PRO: People 

This could be both a pro and a con, but in order to spin it in a more positive way, I'll make it a pro. There are so many people in college and so many types of people. Everyone has some type of story to them and it's actually a lot of fun to meet and learn the backgrounds behind all of these people. There are people you instantly click with, and there are others that take a bit more figuring out, but all together it is definitely an interesting experience.

CON: It's so much easier to feel lonely

This sort of contradicts a previous point I made. Although it's hard to achieve a state of being alone, feeling lonely is very easy. This is the first time away from your parents, and if you're extremely close with your parents like I am, then their absence is extremely palpable in your life. On top of that you realize that at college everyone comes to do their own thing. Some people have class, while others have jobs or internships. No one is going through the exact same path so it's hard to have people know exactly what you're going through.

There are both PROS and CONS to the college lifestyle, and while I am excited to continue on this journey, I'm also terrified. There are so many interactions and relationships that I'm making for the first time here and I'm very worried that my lack of experience will unintentionally mess them up.

The College Diaries | The Time I Moved In

Hey guys,

So I know I've been a little all over the place with my discussion posts and reviews lately but I promise I have a good reason. The last couple of days I've been busy moving into college, which is exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.

So at the moment I'm feeling a bit more homesick than I feel like I should. I got to move in today and unpack my stuff and I will say that I'm pleasantly surprised by the size of our room. While the people next to us got a slightly smaller room with barely a wardrobe, we got a fairly large room with two closets, two desks and four dressers.

Upperclassmen make orientation as easy as possible. They open themselves up to answering any and all questions we have, regardless of the topic and I think everyone else is having just as much trouble digesting this whole college situation as I am.

"What time is curfew?"
"Are we allowed to go off campus?"

It's hard to realize that after all this time, we're completely free. In fact, I went outside at one in the morning and my friend and I ran through the sprinklers, something I wouldn't normally have done at home.

It's an interesting adventure and I'm really hoping this homesickness feeling wears off and I really begin having fun and studying just as hard. It's about two am so I'm gonna sign off and hopefully write more tomorrow

~Fantabulous College Student