I was asked to write about how housemates can be extremely annoying. Well, this is very true of course. Housemates, as a category of people, are very much annoying. For whatever reason, when you are living in close proximity to others, their habits often start to annoy you. Why is this? Because, when they live with you, their habits affect you. And they affect you on a very personal level.

Each persn has this sort of idea of the ideal environment. And the ideal environment for each person is different. Some people like to live in a clean house. Others like to live in a junkyard. Some like to rise early. Some like to go to bed when the sun comes up. Some like classical music. Others like Lil Kim. Some like pink window treatments. Others like white window treatments.

Home is a place where you spend a lot of your time. If you sleep eight hours a night, it's where you will spend well over a third of your time. You like it to be comfortable. You want to feel happy there. Housemates, if their idea of an ideal environment don't jive with yours....are going to be problems. So that's problem number one.

Problem number two, is about the people themselves. The people...well, let's look at who your possible housemates are. Family. Well, it's a well known fact that families don't choose each other. They're stuck with each other. So...it's very much possible to have to completely different thinking people living together as say brother and sister. It's not surprising that problems come about. Another feature of the family, is the chain of command. In general, parents have dominion over children. Children, in general, don't like this. Another source of potential (and often realized) conflict.

You move on in life. Go to college. There, you have roommates again, sometimes. So...how does that work? I think some places allow you to pick your own, and some places arbitrarily assign places. In the first case, you get to pick. This isn't always a good thing. In the second case, it's the same as the family, except that it's two even more potentially different people because you're from two different backgrounds.

Now, you've graduated and you're out there living on your own. With roommates. Presumably, these are friends who you've chosen to be your roommates. Perhaps you've gotten married. Again, somebody who you've chosen to be your spouse, because you get along well with them. At least you have before. When you were living in separate houses. Living with somebody is much different from being friends or lovers with them. You have to see them at their worst. With morning breath in the morning, picking their nose, smelling their farts....it's something you've never seen before. And it's not always pleasant.

In conclusion......housemates suck. Right Emily?