Forming An Opportunity

Having loud and obnoxious roommates can be a real struggle for many college students. During college I have had many different roommates, some were random roommates and others were childhood friends and I have gotten along with all of them pretty well. There is one thing though that they all have in common. Since we aren't on the same exact schedules, sometimes my roommates will be making a lot of noise at inconvenient times in the living room or in their own room. I have many friends here at the University of Florida that deal with the same problem of having roommates that are not always the most considerate. There is a need of peace and quite without any disturbances while you are in your own room. This isn't a new problem but there has yet to be a solution that works for everyone. Many people just end up dealing with their roommates or end up speaking with their roommates but that may create tension. I 100% think that their is a great need for solving obnoxious roommates. Not only college students deal with this but many jobs require roommates or  people that want to stay somewhere less expensive and choose to have roommates.
Interviewee: Nina Albino
I began asking Nina whether or not she had roommates and the relationship she has with them. She told me that her roommates were very nice people but that sometimes they make a lot of noise during the day. Nina says she usually likes studying at home in her room because that where she feels most at peace. She says her roommates are a year younger than her and she interacts with them relatively often. Nina mentions that for her school work she needs to make conference calls and sometimes her roommates are in the living room making noise. Unfortunately Nina has the room that is closes to the living room. She went on to explain that her roommates just are naturally loud people and their conversations can be heard from anywhere in apartment. Nina says that she has asked them on several different occasions if they can be more quite but that it only lasts for a little while. She has been in this apartment for a semester and is glad she can move out when the next semester is over.
Reflection: I learned that the issue she had with her roommates was something that she could not anticipate. She knew when she had conference calls to make but she didn't know whether her roommates were going to have a very exciting conversation in the living about something.
Interviewee #2: Noah Rodriguez
Noah lives in apartments just east of campus in a student housing complex. His roommates are old friends that he went to high school with and is pretty close with them. Noah has a very tight schedule every day of the week. He says he is up by 7:30 and out of the apartment by 8. Noah says that he needs to be in bed by 10 to get a good night sleep and to be ready in the morning. His roommates on the other hand are on a completely different schedule. He says they go to sleep after midnight every single night of the week. They are either watching a movie or playing video games with each other. They also have a huge sound system that Noah enjoys using during the day and his roommates will use it at night. He is good friends with his roommates and he says on the weekends when he has time he participates with his roommates in living room. He understands that they are just having fun and are not intending to be too loud but sometimes they are. He says he has put towels and blankets up against the door to try preventing noise from getting in. Noah says it helps but it all depends on the what they are doing in the living room. The first night he moved into that apartment he knew it was going to be a long year because his roommates had people over and they were playing loud music. He isn't satisfied with blockading his door on nights when it is too loud but he rather have roommates he knows instead of random roommates.
Reflection: Noah seemed to be a very smart guy who is very work oriented, He seemed understanding to the fact that his roommates like to have fun late at night but that he can not hang out with them cause he has to wake up early. He stated twice that he rather be with his friends that are sorta loud at inconvenient times rather then be with quite random roommates.
Interviewee #3: Tanner Redding
Tanner is a senior here at the University of Florida and is in a fraternity. I asked him whether he had roommates and he said he had 4 other roommates. 2 roommates were friends of his in his fraternity and the other 2 were randoms that he met when he moved in. He told me that he was good friends with all his roommates and that they all got along pretty well with each other. The first thing he told me about how is roommates interacted with each other stood out to me. He said that he usually only hung out with his two fraternity roommates and that the other two roommates usually were in their room studying or doing their own thing. I asked him if he had any problems with them and he said that they were nice and didn't say much. I went to ask him if he was around the apartment a lot or if he liked getting out of the apartment during his free time. He told me that his apartment was the best spot to have pregames and tailgate get together because of its convenient location. I asked if his other two roommates would join and he said if they were available he thinks they would join. He was not very clear about their whereabouts when there was a party going on. He said occasionally they would ask for them to turn it down and sometimes they would just leave the apartment.
Reflection: I started to think that Tanner had no problem with obnoxious roommates because he was the obnoxious roommate. He was stating the characteristics of an annoying roommate but from the annoying roommates point of view. He saw no problem with the way he acted or dealt with his roommates. I almost asked if I could talk to his roommates to see how they felt because he knew why I was interviewing him and what assignment was about. Overall he did not seem to have a problem with his roommates but his roommates did not seem they were to happy about how Tanner would deal with him.
Summary : I felt like I tackled a pretty common issue on people with annoying roommates. Some had roommates that were sometimes annoying and others were the annoying roommate. All the people had similar issues on why their roommates were annoying but no one had a working solution. Asking them nicely or blockading your door were both things they they tried but neither was an outright working solution. Everyone is also stuck in the apartment they are in until their lease is over. The original opportunity I think is still there but finding a solution would be harder than I originally thought after talking to them. I think customer feedback is crucial to making decisions. Getting multiple points of view will broaden your understanding of the subject and let you make a better decision in the end.