Assignment 12- Jasir Rahman- Just the Stanford Roommate Essay

I would say that I am quite dynamic in my personality.  To be clear, I don't have a personality disorder.  The duality of my existence lies with my parents.  The circumstances that brought my parents together despite 12,000 miles between them are too complex to get into, but the point is that my parents are from very different worlds.  My mother, a white woman from conservative backwoods of Adrian Michigan, and my father, a Muslim immigrant from the metropolis that is Karachi Pakistan.  Because of the extreme differences between my two worlds, I have found it much easier to modify my personality to fit in with my family and peers.  One minute, I will be discussing football results with my caucasian counterparts, the next I will be watching campy yet charming Bollywood movies in a language I can barely understand.  As such, I find moving between social groups easy.  This is all to say, I think I will get along with my roommate just fine. 

However, I do recognize the difference between social interaction and actually living with another person.  As such, I would say that the most important thing in any relationship is communication.  Establishing an understanding between my roommate will be critical in ensuring success as we transition into living with a stranger.  That is the most important thing to remember in the prospective living-situation, maintain clear communication about your wants and needs.  Because I recognize this, here are some of my own wants and needs out of a prospective roommate.  1st, maintain self-accountability.  This means clean up after yourself and try not to get into trouble that will require me to come in and save the day.  2nd, consult me before making any decisions that impact me such as bringing people or substances back to our room (I am not naive I am aware of the potential hijinx that accompanies a college experience).  That is a good transition into number 3, you should know that I am a Muslim.  I am not super conservative, and I am not going to restrict your life based off of my own religious beliefs.  People have been turned off to engaging with me after they find out I am Muslim, but in fact, Surah Al-Kahf [18:29] in the Quran says something along the line of let he who wishes to believe, believe, and he who wishes not to believe, live in disbelief.  I really don't care what you do as long as it doesn't impact me.

I suppose those are requests that my roommate should probably know about before deciding to live with me.  The tldr version, communication is key.