A Difference of Routine

In college there are three things that are universally true: classes, homework, and dormmates with different schedules that you. Having different schedules means that they do things at different times than you. They may have a class at 8 while you don’t have a class until 9. Another might not even have class on your busiest day. Their way of tackling homework is also, therefore, different from yours. They may work better during the day, or perhaps their brains are more awake at night.

Also, their scheduled time for when they will choose to stop for the day and do something at night is different from you. They may decide to watch a movie, play a game, or some other relaxing activity. Nothing is wrong with this except you might have work to do while they are making noise. You try to just let it go; you don’t want to cause a fuss. But your frustration at not being able to concentrate is grating on you. Plus, it does not help that the ‘green eyed monster of jealousy’ is lurking on your shoulder. It seems to whisper in your ear, just driving your pent-up frustration to new heights for no reason at all. Why do they get to have fun while your stuck studying?

This is about the time that you decide that it is time to make a decision. What are you going to do? How can you satisfy both your desire to study and their desire to relax after a day of homework?

What do you do? Yell at them to mute the show/movie? No! That’s not going to accomplish anything, and you know it. No matter how frustrated you are, please, do not lose your head. Deep down you know it will drive a nail into the relative peace that you all have established, which is never a good plan under any circumstances. You can do better than that, way better. It’s simple really, just politely ask them to turn the volume down a bit. If there happens to be a door to whatever room they are in, just quietly close it. There, the noise is muffled, and they can still enjoy their movie. Also, if you have noise canceling headphones, you can use those to drown out the noise even more. See? You can live through this. You might even get to a good stopping point soon and be able to relax, yourself. Then you won’t really care what kind of noise your roomies are making, and you can all still live together happily!