If you choose to swim in college, I would highly recommend that you contact the other incoming freshmen on the team and try to room with at least one of them. You may not think it’s necessary or a good idea to room with a swimmer, but from experience, it’s the best decision you can make. Here are the 3 definitive reasons why it is imperative that you room with a swimmer for at least a couple years in college.
1. Same Schedules
This one I think is the most obvious. If you room with a swimmer, you’ll find that your schedules are very alike. Aside from the courses you’ll take during the day, the overall structure of a swimmer’s day is different than most other people’s. Mornings are the toughest part of swimming, but having a roommate who also needs to wake up at the crack of dawn and jam into a freezing pool makes the whole experience a little more bearable. Needing to wake up early also means your roommate will fall asleep earlier just like you, avoiding any possible complications with non-athletic roommates. Of course, you may not have the same morning schedule as your roommate, but from my experience with different morning schedules, it still makes wake up and bedtime more pleasant and consistent. You will also find that you and your roommate will often eat together after practices and will end up spending more time with each other than if your schedules differed (hopefully that’s a good thing).
2. Same Friends
Many swim teams, especially the tighter knit ones, spend a lot of time with each other. In my case, most of my friends at school are swimmers, because since the very first day I have been hanging with them and part of the swimming culture. Therefore, having a swimmer roommate will immensely benefit your social life, something very important in college. From just hanging around in your room with other swimmers, to social gathering with the whole team, being roommates with a swimmer just generally helps you be in the loop if your main group of friends consists of swimmers. I don’t know what I would have done my freshman year without my roommate and swimmer friends, and because of that I highly recommend rooming with a fellow teammate.
3. Same Interests
Besides the social and convenience aspect of rooming with a swimmer, we forget that people with common interests attract. Because of this, you will automatically have something in common with your roommate if they are also a swimmer, immediately giving you some conversation starters. The bond that you foster over swimming may very well turn into a long lasting friendship, and I can attest to this as I am now living in a house with 3 other swimmers. You will simply have more in common with your roommate if they swim, which many times leads to a close bond.
To sum up these three important ideas, it is simply easier to live with a swimmer. Having so much in common with someone makes it much easier to create a relationship with them, and having swimming guarantees an immediate bond. Rooming with a non-swimmer can be a great experience, but from my own situation I have learned that rooming with a swimmer makes the college experience much less intimidating and far more comfortable.
Also lots of food ????
Wow, someone’s bitter
Also, and this is very important, try and get into a dorm that is QUIET without the stereos blasting at all hours of the night and early morning. I made this mistake and still regret it to this day.
I think all three of those reasons are reasons NOT to room with a swimmer in college. My experience was that I spent SO much time with my swimmer roommate that there was almost no time that we spent apart. We’d swim together in the mornings, eat breakfast together, took many of the same classes, and therefore had lunch together, went workout together in the afternoon, dinner together at night…
I spend less time with my husband than I did with my roommate. It was way too much exposure to one person, at one of the most stressful times of my life. I think I would have been a healthier and happier student-athlete had I roomed with a non-swimmer.