How to Bond with your Roommate – Advice from Room4402

Greetings from the Short Room on the 4th Floor! The occupants of Room4402 have compiled a list of suggestions to help you become closer to your roomie. These are things we have done together that have proved positive to our relationship.

- Since the start of the year, we have been drawing lots of pictures depicting fun adventures, fears, and dreams of each other and hung them on our door. This helped us to move past any awkward surprises about each other and embrace the individuals we are

- We wrote a song about the first few weeks of living at Grebel. This spilling of thoughts and raw artistic emotion really drew us closer

- We went on a roommate date – hungry, alone, and without parents- and discovered the trials and tribulations of living in the real world as a student with responsibilities

- We often help each other through emotional turmoil. For example: Vicki lost her hairbrush and Jacquie was there for her. Shortly after this event unfolded, it was discovered that actually Jacquie lost Vicki's hairbrush. Once again we had to work through all sorts of difficult emotions, but in the end we had a stronger sense of trust (and respect for each other's belongings/space)

- We share each other's clothes. For example, right at this moment, Jacquie is wearing Vicki's blue v-neck, and Vicki is wearing Jacquie's "To Write Love on Her Arms" tshirt.

- We write info notes to each other during the day. This way no one is left alone without knowing about it first

- We share our food (usually Oreos), water (of the bottled variety) and even the same box of Q-tips

- We call each other's parents Mom and Dad. We have built the relationship up past ourselves to a family level… we are family now

- We both have a pretend fetish with the same celebrity. This helps build recognition of each other's interests

- We have tested each other's strength in fights in the death in the volleyball sand after snack night. We realize that this task is not for everyone, but it helped us to recognize each other's weaknesses and learn to be sensitive about them in future times

These examples are proven to help one bond with their roommate. Room4402 has become so close that once Jacquie saw a picture of herself on Facebook and thought it was Vicki, and tagged it accordingly (until days later when she realized that, oops, that's me not my roommate). Vicki's own Oma often calls and starts to converse with Jacquie thinking its Vicki. We are fortunate enough to have bonded so well as roommates, and we hope that these examples can help any roommates who feel that they could be that little bit closer with their roommate. :)

Written by Vicki and Jacquie