After 3 months of chaos, my roommate finally got a real job

I don't want to jinx it, but last Thursday was the first full week where our apartment didn't smell like burnt popcorn and regret. My roommate, Steve, got hired at a warehouse in Arlington and it's like a switch flipped. He used to stay up till 4am gaming and then sleep through his online classes, leaving dishes in the sink until they grew things. Now he's gone by 7:30am and actually makes his bed, which I didn't even know he knew how to do. The weirdest part is he started buying his own paper towels and even asked if I wanted him to grab me something from the store on his way back. I'm not gonna throw a parade yet, but we had a 20 minute conversation about his new coworker's dog without him checking his phone once. Has anyone else had a roommate turn it around this fast, or am I just waiting for the other shoe to drop?

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david56212d ago

Warehouse jobs in Arlington usually start around 6 or 7am, so him being out the door by 7:30 is a good sign, that part tracks. But here's the thing nobody told me when my old roommate did this exact same turnaround: the first month is the easy part. It's like the new job scares them straight at first (you know, alarm clock, clean dishes, all that) and then around week 6 or 7 they hit a wall. My guy went from model citizen back to 2am video games because the work was boring and the pay wasn't enough to keep him motivated. So the bed making and the paper towels are real, and that's worth something, but don't count on the 20 minute dog conversation being a permanent thing just yet. Give it two months and see if he's still getting up when the alarm goes off. That's the real test, not the first week.

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