Hello lovelies!
Quite a large portion of my readers graduated high school last month and are on your way off to college - Congratulations! You are about to embark on a journey that truly will help you find out who you are, through many trials, frustrations, and opportunities.
Now that we're getting towards the middle of summer, I know some of you are probably excited about college but also trying to forget about it for a little while and just have fun with your high school friends before everyone goes their separate ways.
One of your first friends in college may be your roommate (or in my case, my suitemate!), so when Alyssa contacted me with the idea for this post, I was thrilled to share this with y'all because I feel like most people think everything is as easy as in the movies (I know I thought that!).
As far as my not-so-extensive knowledge goes, some of you who will be attending State universities should be receiving your housing assignments soon and, unfortunately, some of you may have to wait until August! Either way, I hope you find Alyssa's tips really helpful!
*******
How To Contact Your Roommate For The First Time
By: Alyssa J Freitas
Hello everyone! My
name is Alyssa and I blog over at Alyssa
J Freitas(I know, I was so
original with the title) and I write about etiquette, college, and life. It is
a pleasure to be with you today while Mikkaela is in Prague. I hope you find
this post helpful and welcome you to visit
my site for more!
“Wait, these are all of the questions?!?! How are they
supposed to match me up with a roommate based on only 5 questions?” This was
what I wondered before my freshman year of college as I was filling out the
survey which would determine who I would live with for the next year. When you
are going away to college it can be a nerve-wrecking experience not only
because you are entering a completely new academic setting but also because you
are being thrown into a totally strange social/living situation; how weird is
it that we just pack up and move into such close quarters with someone we don’t
even know? I’ll tell you, it’s wicked weird.
There are always both success and horror stories from
freshman year roommates, which you often can’t control. What you can control
however is the first contact you make with your roommate and the first
impression you make. I’m going to share with you my own story and give you some
tips on how to contact your roommate for the first time.
You’ll probably receive your roommate’s email and I would
recommend exchanging phone numbers right away. It just makes communicating so
much easier! Once you can text one another, that’s when the fun begins.
One of the first things my roommate and I started talking
about was what books we like to read and the movies we enjoy watching; pretty
safe and standard stuff. I’d say this is a good way to begin. She then asked me
why she couldn’t find me on Facebook. Ok here we go. So, I just recently got on Facebook (and only
really to connect with other bloggers) which means that my roommate couldn’t
Facebook stalk me. We sent pictures to each other to see what we looked like
and my first mistake was to send one with my sunglasses on. I don’t know what I
was thinking! She couldn’t even see my face (insert face palm emoji here).
We moved on to going over logistics, like who would bring
the microwave and fridge. Through talking we also discovered we had purchased
the same comforter #matchmadeinheaven. And that was about it for our first
conversation!
Now let’s go over the dos and don’ts of your first roommate
conversation:
Do exchange
general pleasantries and talk about basic, common interests.
Don’t make any
snap judgments about your roommate. I really want to stress this! Whether you
think you’ll be perfect together or already feel like you want a switch,
absolutely reserve judgment until you’ve spent time together. It takes time to
get to know people and you want to avoid going into your new living situation
with your mind already made up.
Do go over
logistics. Find out who will bring the microwave, fridge, tv, etc.
Don’t ask
potentially offensive or insensitive questions (visit my blog to get
a
list of great questions to ask in that first conversation).
The main thing to keep in mind is that you want to be
truthful, authentic, and open-minded. You’d be surprised how well a few
questions can serve to match you up with a great roommate! My roommate and I
from freshman year are still very close (she’s one of my best friends) and we
couldn’t have been happier together.
Best of luck with your new roommate! For some great
questions to ask and conversation starters,
visit
my blog here.
*******
xx
Catch you next time.
