DORMMATES- LVING WITH OTHERS CAN BE TOUGH
Living on campus is very different from living with your
immediate family. You may not know your roommates very well. You
may come from different parts of the country, or different parts
of the world. Your roommates may have different cultures,
different religions, different habits, different lifestyles, and
different customs. While these new experiences may initially
seem a little strange or intimidating to you, they may also
offer unique opportunities for greater understanding of others,
more effective ways of communicating, and new avenues for
personal growth.
On Campus Living: A Different Dynamic
Growing up, most of us lived with people very much like us: our
families. After many years of living together, we adapted to
habits of our family members, even if they were different than
our own habits. After all, these people were our families. We
had to get along with each other.
Living on campus offers a different social dynamic. The people
you live with now are, most likely, not the people you will be
living with for the rest of your life. While some students do
develop lifelong relationships with their college roommates,
others live
Although college living experiences are temporary, they offer
students many different avenues for personal growth and
understanding, and for building interpersonal skills which will
help them build relationships after their college years have
passed.
Understanding Differences
Living with persons who have different habits and customs can be
an educational experience. Sharing differences with one another
can lay the foundation for greater understanding of different
religions, cultures, lifestyles, customs and traditions. The
workforce of the new millennium will demand a greater
understanding of the diversity of lifestyles, customs and ways
of communicating, because technology has made it easier to link
persons and companies across the world, with nothing more than a
personal computer. Seen in this context, living with persons who
have different customs and lifestyles can offer students
practical preparation for the workforce of tomorrow.
Not Getting Along With Your Roommates?
Here are some things you might try.
Talk To Them Yourself.
This answer may seem a bit too easy, but surprisingly, it is
often an option that people avoid. It is easy to let problems
go, until they seem so large that talking about them is
intimidating. While it may be hard to approach your roommate if
he/she is doing something which bother you, it will usually help
move the problem toward resolution. On the other hand, if you
don