Moving in? Here are some tips to help you avoid a potentially chaotic first semester living away from home.
Part 1: Checking In (Asserting Your Dominance Over Everyone)
Fist, you’re going to want to claim the best room and/or living area. Arrive at check-in early enough to be the first person into your apartment or dorm. (If you have to camp outside the building the night prior, so be it.) Once you obtain your key, get in there and lay claim to the bed in the far corner of the room. You don’t want someone walking through your space every time they have to go to the bathroom.
Dibs can be called with the strategic placement of the smallest of personal items. Simply placing a shoe on an unclaimed bed makes it yours. YOURS.
Scenario: it’s check-in day and you’ve left a sock on your bed of choice, thus declaring that bed to be your property (just as our forefather’s intended). Exhausted from this task, you venture off to explore the campus. You later return to your room to find that your unseen roommate has moved said sock in complete disregard of dibs-etiquette.
What do you do? Understand that it is perfectly acceptable to pick up that person’s trash and throw it on the lawn. You called that bed. It is yours. You wouldn’t let someone ride in the front seat if you called shotgun, would you? Of course not, you would throat-chop that fool.
When introducing yourself to your roommates, be sure to assert yourself. They need to respect the fact that you are the alpha-dog. If possible, they should fear you. Prison lore says that you must fight the biggest, toughest guy on your first day. I think this sort of applies to living with your peers. Present the image that you are an unstable being (like a stray cat); they will think twice about touching your stuff.
Part 1: Checking In (Asserting Your Dominance Over Everyone)
Fist, you’re going to want to claim the best room and/or living area. Arrive at check-in early enough to be the first person into your apartment or dorm. (If you have to camp outside the building the night prior, so be it.) Once you obtain your key, get in there and lay claim to the bed in the far corner of the room. You don’t want someone walking through your space every time they have to go to the bathroom.
Dibs can be called with the strategic placement of the smallest of personal items. Simply placing a shoe on an unclaimed bed makes it yours. YOURS.
Scenario: it’s check-in day and you’ve left a sock on your bed of choice, thus declaring that bed to be your property (just as our forefather’s intended). Exhausted from this task, you venture off to explore the campus. You later return to your room to find that your unseen roommate has moved said sock in complete disregard of dibs-etiquette.
What do you do? Understand that it is perfectly acceptable to pick up that person’s trash and throw it on the lawn. You called that bed. It is yours. You wouldn’t let someone ride in the front seat if you called shotgun, would you? Of course not, you would throat-chop that fool.
When introducing yourself to your roommates, be sure to assert yourself. They need to respect the fact that you are the alpha-dog. If possible, they should fear you. Prison lore says that you must fight the biggest, toughest guy on your first day. I think this sort of applies to living with your peers. Present the image that you are an unstable being (like a stray cat); they will think twice about touching your stuff.