Nowadays, it is fairly common for people living in big cities to decide against staying at their mom and dad’s house or on their own. Instead, it’s becoming more and more common for people to live with people who are not blood relations. You know this, of course, being the up-to-date cosmopolitan that you are. But what you may not know is that there are multiple benefits offered to those who take this one step further by deciding to have total strangers as roommates.
These benefits include:
1. You Learn to Communicate And Speak Your Mind in a Healthy Way.
If
you are living with family, they have likely known you since birth.
Therefore, in a lot of communication, you likely rely on your family
understanding your body language and the things you
don’t say. Even
long-term friends who become roommates can understand you in a
similarly intimate way. When you decide to have strangers as roommates,
you have no such luxury. Every time something annoys you in the
slightest, you have to say something, because there is no way these
newly-made-intimate strangers are going to know your peccadilloes
without having them spelled out.
2. You Expand Your Social Network.
If
you decide to keep living in the same space and spending time doing the
same things you’ll likely continue to see the same people. And, as
Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over
again and expecting a different result.” In the same sense, if you
desire to meet new people and be exposed to fresh ideas, there’s nothing
that will get you integrated into a new group of people as quickly as
having strangers as roommates. You open up a whole new network of
potential friends, loves, and business contacts just by sharing a living
space with people you didn’t previously know.
3. You Save Money and Live Somewhere You Otherwise Couldn’t Afford.
Millennials
are often said to be overly concerned with money, having come of
wage-earning age during the Global Financial Crisis, so if there’s one
reason you should consider having strangers as roommates, it’s the extra
cash you will have in your wallet at the end of each month. I, myself,
am about to move in with a few strangers into a townhouse on the West
Side of Chicago. I am going to have the top-floor bedroom of this
four-storey all to myself, along with ample living space and multiple
bathrooms. With the average price of a single bedroom apartment in
Chicago approaching $1,600 a month, what I am getting for the price I am
paying is a steal.
4. You Will Learn Which of Your Possessions You Truly Need to Survive.
In
moving in with strangers, you will likely have to negotiate concerns
over shared space and how much of your “stuff” you can actually haul
into this new home. Accordingly, you will find out that your prized
Wolfgang Puck Howitzer-Style Cappuccino Maker is not something that is
essential to your survival, but, rather, is a fictional appliance I just
made up on the spot. In fact, you’ll probably be surprised to learn
that your new roommates Keurig machine works just fine in delivering
caffeine directly to your blood stream.
5. You’ll Learn How to Be Friendly With People Without Necessarily Having to Be Friends With Them.
The
skill of being cordial and friendly with people you don’t know (and may
actually want to maintain a distance from) is something that is very
valuable in work settings, especially in offices. You’ll have to learn
how to have your new roommates like you, and feel warmly towards you,
without having them know every detail of your life– or having to eat
every meal with them. Trust me, this is a skill that is not easily
obtained, but is one that is needed in many circumstances.
No comments:
Write 10