Building Community, One Room at a Time
“I think having a roommate is so much better than being alone.” As first-year students living at Conrad Grebel University College, Jared Konkle and his roommate Kyle Kraft are quick to share about the benefits of starting university with a roommate. “If you have a hard test and you come back and you're like, ‘that sucked,’ you have someone to be there with you instead of just being alone. It’s much, much better having a roommate.”
While they knew that living at Grebel meant that they would be paired with a roommate, Jared and Kyle never expected to get along so well. Even though they both grew up in Kitchener and had parents that attended Grebel, the first time they met was in their group interview. “We heard that someone said after our interview that we could be a good roommate pair,” Jared explained. “We had both brought cookbooks as our conversation item.”
Before coming to Grebel, Kyle was mentally preparing to live with a roommate. “I’m an only child, so I didn’t know what it would be like, but I kept an open mind,” he said.
Jared, on the other hand, grew up with siblings, and had a sense of what it would be like to share his space. “I was just hoping he didn’t snore, and he doesn’t!”
The pair has been taking life together one day at a time, and the main difference in their living habits is that Jared goes to sleep a bit later than Kyle. “It’s not too bad, though,” Kyle said.
After a full term at Grebel, Jared and Kyle have immersed themselves in the community and created a social space in their room. While Jared planned to jump into Grebel’s student life, and serves as First-Year Representative on the Student Council, Kyle did not anticipate as much involvement. “It’s because of this guy,” he said, gesturing to Jared, whose enthusiasm made it easy for Kyle to get involved.
The pair enjoys hosting people in their room, so they added extra chairs and seating to the room. For Jared’s birthday, Kyle and a few others blew up hundreds of balloons and set up the room to be a giant ball pit. “It smelled like latex for a good five days after that,” Kyle said.
During exam season, the social space changed into a study area. “A lot of people ended up in the same psychology class,” Kyle added. “We made a big circle on the floor before the test to study, and we'd fire questions off to each other.”
Before arriving at Grebel, new students fill out a preference survey where they can share their ideal noise levels, cleanliness, what time they wake up and go to sleep, and other personal information that would be useful in roommate pairing. Grebel dons dedicate hours of their time before students arrive to carefully read everyone’s survey and then work to match together compatible roommates. The goal is for two people to live well together, and it is a bonus if they become close friends. Thanks to Grebel traditions like residents leaving their doors open in the halls and filling-the-table during mealtimes, it’s easy to connect with other residents in addition to a roommate.
“With fill-the-table, once you have your food you go and sit at whichever table has an available seat, so nobody is left alone,” Kyle said. “I get to talk to people that I haven’t talked to for a little bit and figure out what they’re up to. It’s awesome,” Jared added.
The benefits of living with a roommate are seen again and again at Grebel. Not only do students have someone to lean on and relate to, but they can develop their interpersonal communication skills and work through conflicts that may arise.
Students at Grebel come from every UWaterloo faculty, resulting in a diverse range of experiences, perspectives, and strengths that contribute to community life. “It's not like I'm in a residence with 50 people and they're all doing the same program,” Jared reflected. “There are people doing wildly different things here. It’s separate but interesting, especially meal conversations.”
Jared and Kyle both plan on returning to Grebel residence for their second year, and since their experience as roommates has been so positive, they want to room together again.