Living with roommates can be a bittersweet experience. While some may find the most amazing friends in the form of roommates, others may live their worst nightmare. If the former is true you’re lucky, and most people definitely find at least one gem of a person. Whatever your experience may be, living with roommates definitely teaches you a lot. You learn both, about yourself, and a few life lessons. Here are some of the things living with roommates teach you.
Highlights
1. Adjusting
One key learning when you live with roommates is adjusting. Living with family and living with people unknown to you, are two completely different experiences. When you live and interact with people coming from different walks of life, you come across various differences as well as similarities, which will teach you to learn to adjust and be accommodating of others. Many a time, you will have to compromise on certain issues or at least take into consideration other aspects and ways of doing things. So living with roommates who have varied upbringings, point of views and ways of doing things, will definitely teach you at least a thing or two about adjusting.
2. Patience
One thing millennials and gen z struggle to keep up with is patience. With tempers and the routine of getting everything quickly, we’re losing our patience too soon. If you’ve lived with many people, you may still be more patient than others. When we live with roommates you understand that you cannot snap at every second thing. You cannot expect someone you barely know to get things done your way and as per your convenience. While adjusting to your roommates, you eventually end up being much more patient than before. Be it waiting for your turn to take a shower, or trying to get things arranged, you develop a sense of patience as each day goes by.
3. Managing Money
When living with roommates, you usually have a budget within which you have to work your monthly expenses. With rent, groceries, travel, outings and many other expenses to manage by yourself, you begin understanding how to manage your money. When you and your roommates decide to pitch in to buy something or when you have to cut down on one area in order to save for something you want, you practically learn how to manage your own finances. If you’re a student, this is one of your first steps towards being a financially independent individual. Living with roommates definitely makes you look out for ways to share expenses and save more, while still living on a budget.
4. Communication
When you live with roommates you learn to communicate effectively and in a negotiable manner. When you have to live in the same house with your roommate, you cannot afford to have arguments about every small thing. To live peacefully, communicating effectively is very important, and this is what you will learn while living with your roommates. You will learn to put forth your point, while taking into account the other person’s opinion too. You will learn to sort out problems through discussion and negotiation. You will understand how you need to speak to convince someone and how to maintain a cordial relationship. This is definitely one of the best and most useful things living with roommates teaches.
5. Different perceptions of cleanliness
People are usually very particular about the way they want something organized, or the way they want something clean. When you live with a bunch of people called roommates, you will understand how each one perceives cleanliness differently. There will be someone who loves an organized mess, someone who needs to clean immediately, someone who needs things to be kept a certain way only and someone who probably doesn’t care. When all these people live under one roof, it is only then you see how everyone’s idea and way of organizing and cleaning is so different. Although it is an integral part of maintaining a house, every roommate will have their own way of doing it. While you will notice this, you will also learn how to be okay with things not being done your way.
6. Importance of me time
Sharing space with many roommates, will give you an increasing feeling of wanting your alone time. Even if you love living with them, you will understand the importance of having a personal space even in a shared home. You will value the time you get to yourself, away from chaos. If you do not get along with your roommates well, this me time is something you will crave for. A little time by yourself definitely helps you rejuvenate and is good for a change. Maybe the time you get is very limited and you may not need it much, but when you do not get a moment of peace with yourself, you begin to miss it.
7. Sharing
Of course, living with roommates teaches you sharing. It is like living with siblings, bit this time, you have the option of choosing them. Right from the house, the expenses, to food and other materialistic things, to even memories, stories and experiences, living with roommates means sharing. Whether willingly or unwillingly, there will be at least some aspect of sharing in every roommate relationship. You often begin thinking of everyone while purchasing something or making a decision. It begins when you start sharing a home and then develops as per the rapport your share with your roommates. It is almost the same as living with siblings, fighting for the bigger slice of cake!
So those were 7 things that living with a roommate teaches you. There are many more learnings and experiences that you gain when you share a home. Most of these are important values that will definitely be of help in the world outside. Living with roommates as mentioned earlier is a bittersweet experience, but making the most of it, is the idea we should go in with.
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