Commentary Final Draft

Tolerance can make you a successful millionaire, for it is central to success. Tolerance is the essence of dealing with common problems. It is crucial in the workplace and it is the basis of individuals' everyday lives. I personally have a very strange roommate and face the struggle of tolerance everyday. He's messy and leaves his stuff and dishes everywhere, he's the biggest nerd I've ever met, he plays the keyboard and sings simultaneously every day (which is just odd), he sings so loud in the shower that it wakes me up in the morning even though he's on the compete other side of the apartment, and I'm pretty sure he's gay. He has told me and my other fellow roommates that when he was in high school he did not know whether he was gay or straight and had many homosexual thoughts. He's a really nice guy don't get me wrong, but he is very weird. Whenever we have people over, all he can talk about is these "Skyflakes" which is some type of cracker that isn't salted, and he just raves about them, exclaiming how, "They go great with jam and jelly". What an odd was to start a conversation. While the other two roommates and I buy real food for the apartment, this is all he buys. It's as if he doesn't know how to live on his own. He was obviously very protected growing up and now he doesn't have mommy to buy him real food and follow him around picking up his messes.

Individuals may struggle to tolerate their roommates based upon many common issues. Issues such as drug and alcohol use, cleanliness, conflicting values, morals, and habits depending upon the way in which the individual was raised, and many others that may include noise, sleeping times, partying, homosexuality, pets, invasion of privacy, etc. Since tolerance is vital to overcoming obstacles in everyday life, learning to deal with something as simple as a "strange" roommate is key to learning the basic skills of tolerance; for with tolerance comes concentration and the ability to focus on what is at task, whether that task be studying for a class, making an important counter-argument at a press conference, or simply attempting to fall asleep. Learning to deal with a "strange" roommate may teach you how crucial tolerance is in everyday life trough it's endless number of applications.

I started asking around on our floor and it seems as if almost every room has at least one person that is considered to be a problem. However, “compromising is important whenever people are living together. Living together involves blending multiple lives and lifestyles. You and your roommates may be very similar or very different” (http://education-portal.com); and while this isn't a huge pissue, there is a lot of kids that have a real problem with their roommates. For instance, my friend Alaina Woolsey has roommates that have "kegger" parties almost every night and keep her up until about three in the morning. She actually just transferred out of her apartment into my building at the Towers, which got me thinking; how many room transfers are related to roommate issues? To research this I contacted the Housing and Residence Life here at UCF. They have reported that in order to get a room transfer, one must first speak with a residence life staff member and if the transfer is related to a roommate issue, they will conduct a meeting with the proper authorities in order to attempt to resolve the issue before issuing a transfer. My friend Matt Young has reported to me a similar problem, for he lives in Lake Claire and has to share a room with someone. He tells me his roommate is a huge "pot-head" who is always smoking in the room and acting like an idiot when he gets high. Poor Matt requested for a transfer, but didn't get it. He didn't want to rat the kid out and get him in trouble with the campus police, he just didn't want to have to live and sleep ten feet away from him. Accordingly, he complained saying that they were just having general issues and arguing a lot about disagreements. They said that arguments weren't enough to get a transfer and that he was stuck to deal with it. This also got me questioning how many room transfers are related to drug and alcohol usage...I interviewed one of the Resident Assistant’s (R.A.’s) in my building. According to Jeffrey, drug and alcohol use is never an issue because in most living areas, drugs and alcohol are not allowed, nor tolerated. There have been no reported cases or any sort of statistics that he has heard of.

I also began asking around in my classes to the students to see if they liked their roommates, how things were working out, etc. I found that the major problem that people had with their roommates wasn't drug and alcohol abuse, but was cleanliness. Some people (like Gabe) love to leave dishes in the sink and always say, "Oh I'll get it later." while the large majority of the student population had conflicting values and likes to keep their area tidy. This generally resulted in some sort of conflict. However, according to Jeffrey of Tower 1 at UCF, the have been no statistics describing this sort of discrepancy between fellow roommates.

Jeffrey quoted that there have been no statistics or history with either of these problems; therefore they cannot be a common issue among roommates. While they may still occur, they are never reported, fearing they may attract the attention of the campus police and would have a larger problem than simply struggling to deal with another human being. Drug and alcohol abuse in apartments they do not allow is may be a serious offense.

I then called my mom to ask if she had any roommate issues when she was in college. She told me, "Of course I did, but I learned to deal with it." which made me assume that with experience, dealing with people you don't get along with becomes easier. Accordingly, younger age groups would have the most problems with their roommates, as they have had the least experience dealing with this issue. Yet, five minutes later, she was telling me how there's a new receptionist at her work that she can't stand. This told me that as people age, they learn how to deal with certain individuals, but when a new problematic individual appears, they face an entire new problem. This showed me that tolerance is a universal issue among all age groups that does not have one single solution to it, for tolerating different individuals requires different techniques. To contradict however, Jeffrey stated that older individuals are more tolerant because they are more used to living independently on their own. I therefore agreed to disagree and decided to stay “on the fence”, for I can find ties to both sides of the argument.

I have thus come to the realization that there are many roommate problems that exist within almost every situation. However, just because there are minor issues, there are not necessarily major problems. Everybody is different, and there is no central problem that exists among roommates other than individuals struggling to learn the basic skills of tolerance. I believe that older individuals are better equipped with these skills because they have been around the independent living environment longer and have more experience with simplifying and solving problems. Through my research, I have found that roommate issues are rarely related to drug and alcohol use, for no cases within the Orlando area have been reported. It may have been the problem, but a different excuse was admitted, such as in Matt Young’s case. Living with everyday annoyances coming from roommates may quickly teach tolerance as one may quickly learn how to deal with everyday annoyances. College students that live in an apartment also live within a democracy; hopefully everybody fulfills his or her commitment.




Bibliography

Doyle, Jeffrey. Personal Interview by Austin Thomas. 19 Oct
2009.

Woolsey, Alaina. Personal Interview by Austin Thomas. 01 Oct
2009.

Young, Matthew. Personal Interview by Austin Thomas. 09 Oct
2009.

Housing and Residence. Orlando, FL: 1997-2009 University of Central Florida, 2008.

"Tips for Living with a College Roommate." Education-Portal.com (2007): n. pag. Web.
19 Oct 2009.
College_Roommate.html>.