Lauren Mangeri – Special to the Southern News –
Roommates. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em. We’ve all had the good times, the okay times and the downright ugly times. Living with someone who you just met can get complicated.
Just a small-town Connecticut girl coming from the one thing she ever knew was hard enough, but moving to an even smaller town of Pembroke, N. Carolina brought its own obstacles.
There wasn’t really much I could do with learning about the type of people I would be rooming with for a semester in the dirty south, and when I say dirty…the amount of dishes I had to clean every weekend that weren’t even mine was absurd.
Dishes. Ladies, let’s be serious for a moment here. No man is going to want to marry you–yes, marry you–if you don’t know how to clean a dish. If you leave a dish in the sink for a long time, mold is going to grow. The bottom line here is who wants mold to somehow walk its way into your food on the counter or in the cabinets? No one.
Not only was living in North Carolina an experience within itself, but New Haven was also something else. I haven’t met so many people who don’t know when garbage should be taken out.
Garbage. After the garbage can is full, I would suggest removing it from the kitchen and placing it in the trash bin that is a little walk down the road. It’s going to smell and once again, no man is going to want to date somebody who has a smelly apartment.
It really makes me cringe to say this, but when you are done with a meal, chances are you didn’t end up finishing the whole meal. Some Tupperware would come in handy or even using the garbage can as well. I just don’t understand why people leave their food from their previous meal on the stove or on the counter for weeks on end. Once again, mold grows. Ew.
It’s not all negativity! I’ve met some of the best roommates in my college experience that I will keep in contact with. It’s all about common courtesy. If you can’t have it with people whom you just met a few months ago, how are you going to have it when you are comfortable in your own home?
After three years of living with complete strangers, I have learned the basics about roommates. After graduation, I will be moving home, but I can tell you…the experiences I have had with roommates is going to shape how I live out the rest of my life. That’s for sure.
