5 Reasons To Live With As Many Friends As Possible

1. It’s Like An Enchantment On Your Life That Makes It Better

The simplest reason to live with friends is that its an enhancer, and it brings the occasionally random promise of improvement along with it.

Yes, it can be random. That is the trade-off for living with others. You can’t control when their birthdays are, or when there will or won’t be loud cooking at the ungodly hour of 10:06 AM (some of us are trying to sleep, Scott!) but it’s more than worth it. Because without them it would be space, silence, and we would be left to our own devices.

We hate being left to our own devices. They say Hell is other people, but maybe for extroverts, Hell is their absence. I live with three friends now, making me the fourth, and just that blanket of people around- cooking, talking, drinking, joking and cleaning- stirs the inspiration within me.

I don’t want to be left on my own devices. I hate my own devices.

2. Other People Bring Out The Best In You

I like to write in coffee shops for the same reason I like having more room-mates: because I like the layer of accountability that a society provides. I like knowing that I should put on clothes by 2 PM. I like seeing my friends cook and be reminded, right, cooking food is a good thing to learn.

You can only learn so much in your own head. Living with others helps remind you that nobody is trapped to be their own self, and that the world contains possibilities for expansion.

Sure, living alone has its advantages, but their often weird, sad, or unfortunate ones. “No one will judge me for eating right over the sink!” is an advantage, but it’s not the philosophy with which I want to advance my life.

3. It’s A Background Social Calendar

This is ideal for the lazy extrovert, such as myself.

You know how nice it is to get home from a hard, annoying, mushy rainy day and seeing your friends making soup? I do. It’s a joy, a transportation to a community better than your own company.

And then you take out a beer, and you have some soup, but you order delivery because you’re an adult and soup isn’t a meal, and you talk some and maybe you go and watch TV with them and maybe you don’t. Maybe you go back to your room and put your headphones on and just vibe. Because the joy of roommates is that they come with their opposites. If you need a moment, some space or quiet, you still have the room.

Regardless; there will be friends in your house, and friends of friends (1950’s Tinder, as I call it) and the bubbling possibility of roommates ensures that you’ll never be bored unless you choose to rest. Plans will hatch, some with you, some without. Chinese food, apple picking, should we make some cookies, should we all get drunk and watch the game?

And you will have these options. And you can say no thanks. And you can live your life or embrace it or split the difference. But it will be there. Your home will generate options.

4. Other Perks

With more people comes more space.

The apartment is usually much cheaper when you get to four or more people.

Easier to find an enhanced budget for communal joys like an Xbox.

Somebody is bound to have Netflix.

You will have people to joke with, complain to, or ask for help.

Exploring a cool new area you’re living in? You will have a few resident experts in your residence. With more friends comes more surface area exploring.

You have plausible deniability about who left their beer out all night, even though everyone knows it was you, you specifically, because you, being me, are just that kind of guy and they still like you anyway.

But seriously, clean your beer.

But also, it’s chill.

5. It Will Ease The Trauma of Adapting From College To The Real World

Have fun, kids!