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Volume CXXXIII, Number 2 |
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Enjoy first-year roommate variety
LINDSAY J. MULLEN
ORIENT STAFF
Dear Lindsay,
I am a first year here, and I don't know how I got matched up with my roommates. Our interests are all completely different. They're nice enough guys, but it seems like we have nothing in common. The guys across the hall all play fall sports, so I can see why they live together. Why wasn't I put with people who are more like me?
-Mismatched Male
Dear Mismatched,
Over the summer, Bob Graves and his hard-working staff try their best to put "Incoming First Year #134 Who Likes Folk Music and Foreign Films" with "French-speaking, Folk-dancing Incoming First Year #91." However, trouble arises when, at the end of the day, there just aren't any more polka-dancing incoming first years to complete the room trio. As much as Residential Life would like every incoming first year to be happy with his/her living situation, it just isn't going to happen. Since a space cannot sit empty, Residential Life has to do a little improvising. Suddenly, "Incoming First Year #225 Who Enjoys Snowboarding and 'Just chillin'" is the perfect third roommate they've been looking for. After all, 134+91=225.
Some room groups are just plain random. As much as I dislike being the bearer of bad news, it sounds as if your room is one of these hodge-podges. As unfortunate as this is for you, it's nothing personal. It's just bad luck. Now, here's the good news. Your situation could be much worse. You could have a roommate who perpetually smells of curry, bites his toenails while watching the WB Friday night lineup, or owns and operates an Egg Wave (a plastic contraption that allows one to cook eggs in a microwave) in your common room. Random is starting to look pretty good, huh?
Now, you write that your roommates are "nice enough guys." This is big. Huge actually. "Nice enough" = "Good enough to live with." Keep in mind that your first-year roommates need not be your two new best friends. However, since the three of you are crammed into a two-room triple that feels like the size of a shoebox, it would probably be in your best interest to try to get along - especially since you have to sleep in the same room with them. So, play nice or else you'll be sleeping with one eye open.
You could even go one step further than coexisting with your roommates and make an attempt to get to know them. They were accepted to Bowdoin for some reason, so unless their last names are Druckenmiller and Ladd, they probably have something to bring to the table (although I'm sure little Stanley and Sammy Jr. would be wonderful additions to the Bowdoin community). Find out what your roommates have to offer; you may even learn something useful.
It's like fruit Mentos. Okay, bad example. No one eats fruit Mentos. It's like Skittles. The last time I had the joy of tasting the rainbow, there were five different taste sensations going on in my mouth. Sure I didn't enjoy the yellow ones as much as the red ones, but the point is that I still ate the yellow ones. So, unless your rainbow is only one color (in which case it wouldn't be a rainbow), I'm sure that you have it in you to expand your horizons.
Res. Life has a tough job, but their rate of success has been good so
far. No one's "eliminated" his/her first-year roommate yet.
And just imagine the fun they must have with some of this. I mean, it
must have felt like Christmas (or Hanukkah) came early to the first floor
of Moulton Union when they got to put "Corona" and "Brandy"
in the same room freshman year. And two guys named "Ray" under
the age of 45 in Moore 014…. Coincidence? I think not.
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