We all have our little quirks that make it hard to live with someone else, or for other people to live with us.
Since I don't have siblings, the closest I came to a roommate before college was weekend-long sleepovers with my best friend in elementary school.
While it's great to have your alone time, sometimes all you want is to feel like you're not alone.
When I moved in with my college roommate during my freshman year, I was forced to accommodate my ways to involve someone else in my living space. I learned to care about someone else and know she cared about me, too.
We quickly became best friends. It was a comfort to know she would be home any minute, or if I was upset I could jump into bed with her.
The experience taught me that having a roommate, especially when you're young, is fun, rewarding and safe. Here's why:
1. You always have someone to come home to.
After a long day at work or a terrible first date with a weirdo who brought his cat to dinner, all you want to do is go home and crawl into bed.
Doing that with a roommate, who makes you laugh and reassures you life will turn out okay, makes it so much easier to cope with the day-to-day problems of life.
You always have someone to tell the latest gossip to, get advice from and talk sleepily to as you drift into your dreams.
2. You get to split the cost of necessities.
Water, toothpaste and paper towels add up. The costs of household items like cleaning supplies are halved when you live with a roommate, and if you're lucky, so are the chores.
My college roommate hated cleaning so much, she bought the cleaning supplies and I did the dirty work. Finding compromises like these is the key to living successfully with someone else.
3. You have someone to hold your hair when you're throwing up.
We all go too hard some nights, but when you live with a roommate, you're guaranteed to always have someone to hold your hair back while your face is buried in the toilet and you feel like you're going to die.
Maybe she was the one who convinced you to put on pants, go to the bar and take that seventh shot, but she's also the one who sticks by your side when it all goes to sh*t.
4. At least one of you will know how to fix any given problem.
When you live alone, you rely on your own limited set of skills to figure out day-to-day problems. But when you have a roommate, there's an additional skill set.
Maybe one of you is really great at cooking while the other isn't afraid of killing cockroaches. Or, one of you knows how to detangle your hair from a round-barrel brush and the other remembers to tip the super during the holidays.
And, even if neither of you knows how to solve a problem, at least you won't have to go through it alone.
5. You double your network of friends.
Whether you and your roommate have been friends for years or just met on Craigslist, when you move in together, you'll have a whole new group of people to meet and get closer with.
His or her friends will get to know you better when they start spending time at your place. You'll have new people to go out with on Friday and have hungover brunch with on Saturday.
6. You'll grow together.
College roommates, single gals in the city, partners in mid-life crises – no matter the situation that brought you together, having a roommate is always a fun learning experience.
Living with someone else allows both of you to learn things about yourselves that wouldn't come up on your own. You're forced to be neater, more considerate and to shut off your alarm in the mornings.
Whether you're studying together, complaining about failed relationships or learning how to cook without setting off the fire alarm, you'll grow as a person through your daily interactions with your roommate.
