I wasn’t offended.

First of all, I really appreciate it when people are forward with me. If they are clear and honest with their word, I’m a happy person. Even if they are painfully honest, I’m cool with it. Better painfully honest than constantly tiptoeing around subjects. Which leads to my next point.

I already knew.

I have a strong, assertive personality that I got from my mom. My siblings all inherited her personality as well. I explained that my rudeness stemmed from the environment I grew up in.

All the strong personalities under a single roof did not create the most ideal circumstances. When strong personalities meet, they clash, hard. My siblings and I all grew thick skins and explosive tempers. We learned that we needed to fight in order to make it through each and every day. Before we all moved out, a week wasn’t complete without some screaming showdowns.

Not long after I explained my circumstances to my friend I stopped and thought about how my personality affected my life before UPS and after arriving.

I never really learned to “turn off” that strong personality whenever I left home. It had become so integrated into my identity that if I did manage to turn it off, I wouldn’t be me. So, this personality that had been forged from a necessity to survive became a necessity to my identity. How I think this affected my life is interesting and shameful, which just a touch of hilarity. I mean, why else would I be writing this?

Last summer, I had a job at a summer camp. I really enjoyed it. My coworkers were great, which in turn made my work environment just as great. I grew to love waking up at 6 every morning to catch the train to work (this was just a day camp held at Stanford University). Every day made me smile. So it was bittersweet when I had a week off in the middle of the summer. I would get a break from nightmarish campers and parents, but I wouldn’t get to crack stupid jokes with my coworkers or geek out about computer stuff (this was a technology camp).

Every Friday, we’d host an open house so our campers would be able to show off their projects to their parents. Every classroom had at least one staff member assigned to it while everyone else was spread out into support roles. My role every week was to stand at the entrance and direct parents to their kid’s classroom.

After I returned from my week off, one of my coworkers told me that he had to take my place that last Friday. My boss told him, “Be like Kevin, but less aggressive.” Wow boss, I don’t know whether to be flattered or offended. Flaffended? Ottered? Whatever, you get the idea.

Thing is, my boss and all of his bosses loved me. They loved my personality and thought it was hilarious how no matter how much I yelled and shouted at the kids, quite a few would name me as their favorite staff member when we did end of the week surveys. Kids are weird.

Too bad I had to learn that shouting only works on kids the hard way.

The second night after the freshmen moved in, a bunch of my floormates gathered in our lounge to get to know each other and start to bond as a floor. Things went pretty well, then I introduced Psychiatrist.

Psychiatrist is a party game I learned last summer from my coworkers. I won’t go into details, but I found that it’s a really fun game because it’s a great way to get to know funny things about people.

Being an excited college freshmen, my floormates didn’t listen to me. I really didn’t, and still don’t, blame them. We all just moved in and were still settling in and getting to know everyone. However, I reacted in a less than ideal way.

I told them all to be quiet, in a much less polite and much more vulgar way. What a great way to start off my relationship with my floor. Spent a lot of nights laying in bed thinking about that.

It’s easy to point fingers and blame people for my behavior. My mom gave me my personality. My family encouraged it to grow into what it is  today.

But the only one to blame is me. I’m aware of this issue and don’t put very much effort into correcting it. I do try to filter my language and reel in my temper. And I’m becoming more successful with that. But, it’s just too easy to slip back into old habits sometimes.

But maybe part of me knows that it’s good to slip back into those old habits. I’d be staying true to myself rather than trying to be someone I’m not.

Yes I’m loud, rude, vulgar, stubborn and impulsive. But that’s me. That’s Kevin.

It’s happening again. My roommate is gone for the weekend. That means I have our room ALL to myself. What do I do? What don’t I do? The possibilities are endless! Play video games all night? Watch Game of Thrones? Go out and come back obscenely late? Have a girl over? Hah, who am I kidding? Any high school graduate knows that girls have cooties.

I’ll figure out something to do with my Saturday night, eventually, probably, hopefully. But what about you? What should you do if your roommate(s) is gone? I can think of a couple things:

• Hang out with the people on your floor! Saying “Hi” in the hallway isn’t gonna cut it. If you haven’t already, talk to your floor-mates! Go grab some pizza at The Cellar, catch a show somewhere on campus or go off campus and check out Tacoma! We were all accepted for a reason, and that’s because we’re insanely awesome!
• Netflix. No, not Netflix and Chill, just Netflix, and probably snacks. But if you’re down for some chilling, all power to you. Despite our university’s spotty wi-fi at times, we can still stream some of our favorite shows and movies on our second favorite website (first is Amazon). If you’re short on snacks, pop over to The Cellar for pizza, ice cream and soda, all part of a balanced college diet. Hey, you can even invite your floor-mates and friends over to watch!
• ALL THE SNACKS. Just eat all the snacks in your room. You know you’ve always wanted to. Just tell your roommate a raccoon or deer or something beat you up and took all the snacks.
• Mess with your roommates stuff. (Caution: Only do this if you and your roommate have established it is okay to prank on another.) Have you ever seen those videos where someone goes on vacation only to discover their co-workers have filled their cubicle with balloon? Do that. Wrap their stuff in tin foil. Rearrange all of their stuff. Completely redecorate the room without telling them. Put their stuff in jello. The possibilities are endless!
• Enjoy the privacy. Most of us were used to having a room to ourselves before coming here. Then we got stuck with a roommate and have had pretty much no privacy since. How long has it been since you had a room to yourself? Enjoy it while it lasts.
• Sit around and wait for them to come back. Admit it. Once they walked out of the door, you started missing them. For most people, their roommate is their best friend. If anything, you got used to having someone around. There’s no shame in staring at the door, waiting for that knob to turn.

The list goes on and on. I hope these help you overcome the boredom of not having a roommate for a little while. Have fun!