Roommate Check-Up

Roommate Check-up - Some Tips and Tricks

 

The Purpose of Residence Life

To create physically and relationally supportive environments
where students are challenged to live out the body of Christ and grow in His likeness.

With that as our overarching Res Life purpose, we do have some practical tips and tricks to help you through your exciting roommate adventure.

Tip number 1- Even if you cloned yourself and roomed together, at some point you are going to think about leaving your totally incompatible roommate for someone “better.”

Although your roommate has been created in the image of God, and for that fact alone, is worthy of your love, they also have a lovely stamp from Adam and Eve’s playbook of sin, and will be trading personal injuries with you throughout the year.

Tip number 2 – Just like the man from the Bible, forgiven of a gigantic debt, who then ran to his neighbor’s house and demanded the small sum that was owed him, you are going to want to throw your roommate “into debtor’s prison” at some point during the school year.

When you feel wronged somehow by your roommate, whether being woken up at 1:00am by a crackly bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos, or climbing over a mountain of their clothes graded at a 5.12 climbing wall difficulty, you have two good options:

All other options have been thoroughly tested in the residence halls to disastrous ends.

Some fan favorites

It is almost impossible not to fall into one or some of these fan favorites depending on your particular temperament or proclivities. But, just like C.S. Lewis’s, Screwtape Letters, it can be helpful to name and call out the pathways that look so broad and tempting but lead to eventual ruin of relationships. The guidelines that God sets up for us regarding loving our neighbor are not for his thriving but for ours. The disciplines involved in loving our neighbor (or more specifically our roommate) might feel like work, but they are the planting, pruning, watering and waiting that is involved in producing the garden of delights that God intends for Christian community to enjoy.

You will discover that no matter where you came from, city-or-suburb, domestic-or-global, you will find that people on your floor (and in your room) will have different values, different methods of interacting, and different functions in the body of Christ.

If we assume that we are the measure of what is good and right, we are going to miss out on the fullness of the reflection of God in His creation. We can look at our neighbor with a critical and limited lens, and our eyes will become darker, or we can see the signature of God in the very thing that feels bothersome at the moment, and realize that there is a true reflection of God in our neighbor that we can fan into fullness. The once irritating “indirectness” becomes a reflection of God’s gentleness in our life. The “emotional wreck” shows us the beauty of God’s willingness to be affected by his creation. The “pushy and hasty” study group member is a reminder that God is the master strategist, efficient and forward leaning.

We know that you are coming into your room and onto your floor with both excitement and some trepidation. We encourage you to hold your expectations very loosely because community, if it is one thing, is imperfect. We also challenge you to spend less time thinking about yourself and how you will fit in or if you will have a good time, and more about how you will love and encourage the people that God puts directly around you with the gifts and passions that He has given you.

Please know that the Res Life staff is praying for you by name and is here to encourage, challenge and support you during your time at Wheaton.

 

Smith-Traber RD
Chad Lowe

Fischer RD

Fischer RD
Joy Chilala Matthews

Upperclass Halls RD
Sarah Johnson

Assistant Director Residence Life

Asst. Dir. Of Residence Life/Apts. & Houses RD       
Jacob Hoekstra

Joy Hatcher Headshot

Michigan & Crescent
Joy Hatcher

Student GRA

800s College Avenue
Amanee Troia

2025 GRA

900s College Avenue
Jonathan Just

2025 GRA

Saint and Elliot
Abigail Riffel Harvey

Victoria-Gullins-2024

1047 and 1051 Terrace
Victoria Gullins

sarah-chang-2025

1055 and 1057 Terrace
Sarah Chang

2025 GRA

Smith-Traber GRA
Jessica Connors

2025 GRA

Smith-Traber GRA
Matthew Shaw

Ian Weathington 2024

Upperclass Halls GRA
Ian Weathington

2025 GRA

Upperclass Halls GRA
Katie Smith

Fischer GRA

Fischer GRA
Moriah Figueroa

2025 GRA

Fischer GRA
Sam Erickson