Roommate Life

    As most colleges in America have an on-campus living requirement, Ohio Northern is no different in this category with a 3 year on-campus mandate. Throughout this experience I have learned to live side by side with another person, and it has gone relatively well. Before my freshman year, me and my friend from home agreed to live together the first year and see how it went. Thankfully, we became best friends and ended up living with each other for the following two years. We learned that we are very similar people, not only in our interests, but how we wanted to manage living together. As our senior year approached, we no longer registered for the housing lottery, but instead talked to local landlords about their offerings. The second half of this search was finding other roommates, which worked out well as 3 of our other friends were interested in getting a 5-bedroom house. Now that our situation was figured out, the feeling of excitement had begun.

    Now that it is my senior year, it means I have finally moved out of dorms and apartments, and into a house. Now of course there is many benefits to living in a house instead of on campus such as making your own food, affordability, and typically more privacy. Out of those three benefits, one is not always a guarantee, especially when you live with 4 other friends. I thought my days of hearing music blasted through the wall were past me once I got through freshmen year, but I was very wrong. Apparently, there is a new rule in our house that if anyone sleeps past 8 a.m. on the weekends, then you will be woken up by aggressively upbeat music. This new rule is especially annoying after a long night out when the only thing you want to do is sleep the following day. 

    Obviously, this is not an actual rule, but it showcases that even when your friends are seniors, it does not stop them from acting like freshmen. I have no ill feelings towards them (yet), but I do know that further down in life I do not wish to have four other men living alongside me. Although I have described living with other people as a negative experience, the pros outweigh the cons. Living with some of your best friends may be a little crazy at times, but the crazy is worth it for the fun and bonding that goes on throughout the experience.