I finally returned to school in the middle of an academic year, so the college administration had to put me wherever there was space. There was space in a very nice 4 person suite in an upperclassmen dorm. The reason there was space was because one of the girls had just broken lease to go move out. That should have been warning #1.
I had a room to myself within the suite, which was nice, and now I was only sharing a bathroom with 3 other girls. However, one of the girls in the suite quickly made herself known as an absolute nightmare individual.
When the RA came to do the paperwork soon after I arrived, she mediated a quick chat among us so we could discuss what we require in our living situation. Nightmare girl thought it was worth mentioning to the RA that all the blinds in all the adjacent windows have to be even with one another. OK, whatever.
Nightmare girl sent emails to the whole apartment on a regular basis because that was how she did her confrontations. “There is a singular knife in the sink. It has been there all night. We agreed that we would always do dishes within 24 hours of creating them, so I feel this is extremely disrespectful to the rest of us. Whoever’s knife that is, clean it.”
It quickly became clear that living up to nightmare girl’s standards was going to be impossible so I simply avoided touching anything in the common spaces. I would just stay in my own room. If I didn’t change anything, she couldn’t blame me for it. However, I still had to use our bathroom – multiple times a day, because that is life for me – and so I tried very very hard to be acceptable in that regard. I scrubbed the toilet down every time I used it. I somehow must have missed a speck on occasion however because the emails would come:
“Guys, the toilet is repulsive. Whoever is doing that is being extremely disrespectful to the rest of us by leaving such a mess. Clean up your messes, this is disgusting.”
I only had to live with her for a semester but it dragged on and on. I had multiple medical problems during that semester but I sure as hell wasn’t going to confide in my roommates. I don’t think they noticed when I went to the hospital for several days. I was starting to think I’d never be comfortable at college and would never be able to be accepted for who and what I was.