Freshman year is hard enough: you move away from the comfort of your life at home, leave friends and family behind, transition to a university that is way bigger than your high school. You have to figure out how to get from your 8am in South Wonders to your 10:20 in the Psych Building in the 30 minutes you have between the two. You need to balance time spent doing RSOs, hall events, UAB craft nights, office hours, and Union Late Nights. And on top of all this, you are adjusting to living with a complete stranger. Being a college student should be a superpower. Honestly, you are juggling so many things WHILE making real adult decisions without any parents telling you what time to be home by or when to do your laundry. It is just like fighting crime and saving cats. Oh, and don’t even get me started on trying to figure out CATA.
Everyone warns you about choosing a roommate. “Don’t pick your best friend, that never works out.” “But don’t pick a total stranger, what if they’re too different?” “Trying RoomSync.” “Write a Bio and post it on the FaceBook page.” “Message some people who seem nice.” “Be yourself!” “Don’t be too open.” In my efforts of finding that perfect someone, I onced flooded this girl’s inbox with pictures of my neighbor’s dog because she mentioned having a dog. She ended up blocking me. There is thin line between being friendly and being creepy. If you find it, let me know. So my roommate search continued as I checked the Facebook page several times a day hoping to catch that perfect someone to share Freshman year with. Eventually I found her. However, perfect would be a bit of an overstatement and there was very little sharing going on. My experience begs the question: does anyone ever find their perfect roommate? You hear the horror stories, but do these people actually affect our mental and physical health?
There is lots of research on the importance of having safe and clean housing. There is a threatening rise in homelessness in the US. There are also studies on the negative health effects of being homeless. World Health Organization (WHO?)- World Health Organization (WHO?) explains that the quality of your home is correlated to your risk for infection and disease. They propose global housing standards to be put in place. So I think we can all agree that living in a home is important. Probably a top priority. And there are ways to help those who are in unsafe housing or out on the streets. Here are some resources and ways to help in the Lansing area.
There are studies as well on how the health of your hospital roommate shortens you stay and actually decreases the amount of treatment you need. So next time you go to the hospital, request a healthy roomie and it will actually save you $$$. The next time you tell someone to “Get well soon,” maybe you should just move in with them.
So we have your health covered, what about your mental health or mood? Some studies show that having a negative (they like to be called glass-half-empty) roommate impacts you negatively. (I am endorsing a U of M study here so you know if must be worth the read).
However, there is conflicting evidence and because these tests and studies are done on people, there is bound to be a lot of bias. This study explains how these effects may not be as dramatic as we might have believed. And other studies show that we may not even be in charge of this, but our genes are (that reminds me, I borrowed my roommate’s jeans but haven’t given them back yet…Rachel if you are reading this, I am sorry!)
Moral of the story: surround yourself with healthy germs (aka healthy people). We cannot always avoid the crazy roommate, but have you ever considered being the roommate that improves their health?
STATE of Mind 