Living with roommates is a part of life when you’re in college. At Colorado Mesa University, it is required to live on campus during freshmen and, most often, sophomore years. 

Freshmen year, you are thrown into a crowded building with a random person and told to share a bathroom. There are good and bad experiences when it comes to roommates. Sometimes roommates become the best of friends, and other times they leave you with frustration or a really good story to tell. 

I did like my dorm room experiences. I am not here to complain about how I had a bad roommate, but rather to give you a real look at what can go on in the dorms as a freshman. I want to say that I enjoyed the company of my roommate and suitemates.

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I do advise that there will be some talk about drugs and alcohol in this story. I am not condoning or promoting the use of drugs or alcohol, but I do hope to shed some light on the reality of dorm life. I want to remind students that the use of drugs and/or alcohol are prohibited in CMU dorms and on campus.

For this story, I will be referring to my roommate as “Bob” to protect his identity. 

I lived in Bunting Hall on the third floor, room 310. Bunting Hall is a suite-style dorm, so there were four guys sharing one bathroom. My room somehow became the place to hang. There would be friends going in and out all day. Video games always blasted on the T.V. into the morning hours. I would have to fall asleep to a loud Xbox and then wake up at 3 a.m. to shut it off. Both of our doors were taped so that anyone could walk in, which made our room very trafficked by the 3rd floor.

Bob was a messy roommate. I think he maybe vacuumed twice the whole year and one of those times was before he had to move out in May. He would spit sunflower seeds on the floor, so we needed more vacuuming. My suitemates and their friends would leave all their trash on the floors while playing Xbox as well. One time, Bob even waxed his snowboard on the floor of our room so the wax shavings were smashed into the carpet.

“Since my room was the place to hang out at, I would walk in to around half of the 3rd floor drinking and playing beer pong in my room.”

There would be people sitting and laying in my bed while I’m trying to take a shower and change clothes. Or I would come in to the potent smell of pot and have to worry if the R.A.’s would smell it and come knocking on our door.

To be honest, my room often wreaked of pot. Everyone that would come in wanted to smoke in my room.

Bob’s friends kept their bongs hidden in my room, so that always worried me.

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Almost every morning I was woken up by the smell of pot and someone furiously coughing just feet from my bed.

Our bathroom was never cleaned. I could barely stand brushing my teeth at the sink and looking at the disgusting mirror. There were toothpaste, beard clippings and rotten foodstuff everywhere around the sink. I can remember a number of people from the 3rd floor that threw up in out bathroom and it was still never cleaned.  

Bob would take long showers as well—like four-hour-long showers. I knew if Bob was showering, it would be a long time until I could shower or even use the bathroom. He would lay down and fall asleep in the shower. I would wake up to Bob taking a shower from the night before. One time, Bob took such a long shower that it began to flood the floor below us.

“Looking back at my experience I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

Yes, it was horrible trying to fall asleep to drunk roommates yelling at the Xbox, but I’m over it now. We made a mess of room 310, but we had fun doing it. We had a lot of laughs and I got to meet so many people. A few freshmen get lucky and have a clean, quiet and chill dorm roommate, but what fun is that?

As annoying and frustrating roommates can be, learn to enjoy it. College is one of the only times where you will live with roommates and have crazy and stupid stories to tell.