Having lived with roommates for a while now, and trying to better myself as I get older, I’m trying to distance myself from the idea of doing something, because someone else did it first. As cathartic as it can be, one of the major flaws with this especially when living with a lot of others, is that often people will get it completely wrong, in reality, they will blame the wrong person. Living with 6 different people has made this very apparent to me, because I’ve come to learn that my roommates will do things like steal food from each other, simply because they believe they’re having it stolen.
The worst instance of this that I’ve encountered so far is when they begin to try and bait each other, into taking actions against things they perceive to be wrong, trying to will others to change their behavior. This often erupts into aggression between the individuals, which turns into petty games and attacks, and in the worst case can lead someone to begin attacking someone who has no involvement at all, purely because of misinformation.
Now, I’ve lived with roommates most of my adult life, I have a hard time wanting to live alone, I tend to thrive more when I have people to talk to, people to interact with, and when there’s a general sense of live where I live. But I’ve encountered one of the worst roommates I’ve ever known in my life, someone who seemingly hates all of us, why he even lives in a room is beyond me, especially given I know he makes more than enough to get an apartment to himself.
This is the first time in my life I’ve ever been directly discriminated against in my life for being transgender, and also the first time in my life I’ve had to record someone I live with 24/7 because, as he admitted, he will try to trick me into scenarios where he can record in order to try and get me evicted, simply because he can’t handle my being transgender.
The most unfortunate part about all of this is, this man, is also the one who convinced the owner of these building to attempt to illegally evict another tenant, which resulted in the police having to tell him he has to submit a form via the landlord tenant board, something my roommate even admitted he knows the owner knew, and believes, as I do, that the owner was simply trying to “get away with it”.
It’s hard believe in humanity while also knowing that individuals like this exist.