Everyone has probably heard at least one story about a “roommate from hell.” And we agree that there are cases when you are helpless in terms of building a great relationship with the person you are living with on-campus or when renting an apartment. Eventually, some individuals might be just too ignorant, narcissistic, or aggressive. However, in the majority of cases, you can befriend your roommate if you want to. And we can help you with that.
Why You Should Build Friendship with Your Roommate
Of course, being friends with your roommate is not a must. You can totally live your separate lives without trying to know more about each other, minimizing your communication down to occasional conversations. However, there are multiple pros to being friends with your roommate, such as:
- You have more trust
- You enjoy co-living together more
- You can always ask them for a favor
- You face fewer difficulties in communication
- You gain one more close person in your life
- You have fun together
- You and your roommate can easier solve problems that occur
All of the things above can only exist if there is mutual understanding and respect. You can’t become friends with someone against their will, especially if they don’t respect your habits, interests, and needs. In your turn, you should be open towards communication and be willing to meet in the middle when it comes to your and your roommate’s differences. So, how can you befriend your roommate? Here are four tips that will definitely help you out.
Tip #1. Learn More About Each Other
Sometimes, all we need to start a friendship is to discover something common between other people and us. Common interests or experiences often help us understand another person better and create a special bond. When you want to befriend your roomie, you should spend some time together having a conversation about your likes, interests, dislikes, habits, personal qualities, etc. If you don’t want to push your roomie, it might take some time to learn each other better as time goes by. Eventually, it will happen naturally through some small details that surface through everyday routine.
Tip #2. Have a Night Out
As it was said earlier, asking your roommate for a night out can really boost your relationship. Having dinner out together or exploring around your campus and the city will help you get to know each other better. Spend some quality time together, get out of your dorm that might not be as interesting to spend time at, and even meet some new friends together.
You both might not know anything about the local facilities and places, so why not explore something new together?
Tip #3. Try Common Activities
Think of the things that might interest your roomie and which you can both be involved in. For example, ask them if they want to play a game together or go to the concert/party/club meeting. The best way to start a friendship is to spend more time together and find more common interests. You can even propose to cook together or decorate your room – small friendly moves will definitely do the job to make the relationship between you and your roommate closer and warmer.
Tip #4. Be Approachable
The most surefire way to become friends with someone is to be yourself and open to new people in your life. True friendship cannot be forced, so just take your time and don’t try too hard. Eventually, not all roommates become friends, but they still have fun together and don’t experience any difficulties with co-living.
If you want to make things with your roommate work, you should be understanding, supportive, reliable, and approachable so that your roomie knows they can count on you and talk to you about what is going on in their lives. Sharing experiences, even the negative ones, is the way to become closer together and start a great friendship. Many now best friends can’t recall the exact day their friendship was born but can think of many conversations they had and how fun it was to spend time together. This is the formula for a successful friendship – fun and talks, common interests, a similar sense of humor, a willingness to help and support each other.
Wrapping Up
Share information about yourself, and your roommate will likely do the same. You might have much more in common than you think. Just ask if your roomie wants to watch a movie together to learn what genres they prefer. Ask them to go out for dinner to learn about their food preferences. Talk about their favorite music, games, books, what classes they find hard – all of these things that you discuss put both of you closer together. Don’t be shy but make sure you don’t act annoyingly and pushy.