College Roommates

Sometimes in the normal course of a work day a topic will appear in the general chit-chat that is taking place in the office. Today the conversations were focused around college roommates that we had or that our friends had who colored our college career.

Most of these stories weren't life changing events, but I thought about how much more interesting of people each one of us became because of the people we met through various mish mash of living situations during our college years. EVERYONE at some point lives with someone who is quite different from him/herself and the inevitable culture clash is what makes the stories interesting and ultimately (you knew there was going to be a moral here, didn't you?) helps us to grow as people.

They were varied, from the person who lived with some of my college buddies that was obsessed (no, really... obsessed) with fire trucks in the way that a three year old is obsessed with fire trucks. It was well known in that house to stay away from the path to the window if a siren was heard because you may get trampled as roommate rushed to the window. Another was about the roommate who thought majoring in anything less than medical science or engineering was simply unacceptable and a waste of that person's life- and wasn't afraid to let anyone know about those opinions! Then we have roommates with various crazy (so they seemed to us) money making schemes, various medical conditions (some real, some... questionable) some with just downright weird (or so it seemed to us) habits...

But it got me thinking. While none of us ever actually claimed these folks as friends we remembered them better than some of the people who were our friends in college that we no longer talk to. ("Oh yeah, there was this guy who was the roommate of my friend... uh, well I can't remember my friend's name but this guy he lived with, you see, was totally weird...") So oddly enough 2 or 5 or 10 years later (oh my...I've hit double digit years since starting college. Yikes!) these are the people we remember and use as conversation centerpieces, while some of the people who we were friends with have fallen by the wayside.

A little sad, yes, but I think we're certainly all more interesting people from having the exposure to these different tastes, lifestyles, quirks, opinions, etc. After all, you never know when you're going to run into someone just like that "one" roommate in real life and now you already know how to deal with it! Plus, what on earth would we have talked about all day if it weren't for these people coloring our college years?!