Megan says despite differences, it’s nice to come home to friends she can talk to about her day, classes, homework and favorite TV shows.

Jen says her adjustment period went well, but she thinks the boys were initially pretty nervous.
“They would stay in the basement and didn’t feel comfortable coming upstairs and hanging out,” Jen says.

The group meshes well together because everyone has different perspectives on life and relationships, she says. The roommates don’t mind being honest with their opinions and letting each other know exactly how they feel.

“Brian tells us what he thinks about everyone,” Jen says. “He reminds me of my brother. He watches us and makes sure nothing bad happens to us when we’re out.”

She also says having siblings and a large group of close friends helped pave the way for a smooth adjustment into the house that may not have been possible otherwise.

“You’re more used to the annoying stuff people do because you grew up with it,” she says. “I have a big group of high school friends, too, which helped because I’ve always been around large groups of people.”

the stress hits the fan
The stress sometimes gets hard to handle, but the roommates find comfort in one another.
“We come home and bitch about it to eachother,” Megan says of architecture. “Even though we have different professors, we have the same problems.”

She says architecture students are the only people who can completely understand the daily problems involved in the program. The roommates are not only her classmates but also her friends.

“I don’t really know anyone outside of architecture, which can be good and bad,” Megan says. “They are people who I can vent to. We complain about professors and some of the things they make us do.”

She says sometimes there is tension with schoolwork and relationships with other people in architecture. It is one big soap opera with cliques within the program, and sometimes she gets sick of the drama.

Rachel says she likes that her roommates know what she is going through and can sympathize with her because they are dealing with similar situations and issues.

Although the roommates sometimes procrastinate together, they also lean on each other for support and show encouragement when projects get hard and someone needs a lift, she adds.

This is the story of six friends who choose to live together in a house, pay their own bills, attend school and learn not to kill each other.
No, this isn’t reality TV — it’s real life, which is people living together without the funded nightlife or the glitzy, Hollywood editing. See what happens when people stop being nice and keep being real. This is the real world, Kent-style.

how it all began
Six friends — Jen, Rachel, Lisa, Emily, Matt and Brian — moved into a house on Crain Avenue. All are architecture majors, except Brian.
In the fall, another architecture major, Megan, took Lisa’s place in the house.

Megan says it was difficult adjusting to everyone’s patterns. She felt like the odd person out at first because everyone was already settled in together.

“I had to jump in and go with it,” Megan says. “I’m still in the process of adjusting. The first week or two was hard, but it keeps getting better.”

Emily says the rest of the group did not have to do much adapting to one another, because everyone connected in the architecture studio and during the program’s trip to Italy in the spring.

“It’s a relief to live with people who you like and can relate to,” she says. “For the first two years of college, we spent more time together than with our roommates.”

Megan says people in the house know how to push each other’s buttons.

Men are the hot topic because everyone in the house knows all the same men and there is always something that can be said to stir up trouble.

“It’s hard being with girls because sometimes there’s tension,” Megan says. “I like being home, but it’s overwhelming sometimes because there are so many people, and it feels like you cannot escape.”

Brian says he likes living with women because they are not as egotistical as men. The first month or two was just getting to know each other and learning what everyone likes to do.

“There’s a lot of girl talk when we go out like, ‘This boy looked at me,’” Brian says. “I give the male side of the story.

“I usually play the devil’s advocate because sometimes I stand back and see things from a different perspective.”

Brian often finds he is the only male in the house because Matt spends a majority of his time at his girlfriend’s place. Matt says he would like to spend more time with his roommates, but he values the time he spends with his girlfriend and is often caught between two worlds. He misses the little things, such as spontaneous hangout moments after class and bonding over Friends, Scrubs and Will & Grace on Thursday nights. These moments are the glue of the group.