Which flatmate are you?

Here’s another dose of Disney-inspired wisdom. For those of you who have yet to experience wonders and woes of flat living, you may be wondering… just who might you end up with? I know I did.

And now I know.

We started as strangers. By the end, we were just strange in our own little ways.

It was when we were attempting to clean our kitchen (a once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence, I tell you) that I realised something profound: that we can all relate on a spiritual level to Snow White’s dwarfs.

Doc

Amongst the spontaneity and chaos that is living in halls, Doc is a beacon of calm and reason. The custodian of the corridor and the keeper of the kitchen.

At the beginning of the year, when all you want to do is go wild, you may not appreciate Doc. No sir, who wants order? In my flat, we had our fair share of tension – there were the messy vs the organised, the night owls vs early morning owls (i.e. they slept at dawn), the loud vs. the quiet.

Enter Doc, the negotiator and the compromiser. Especially around the exam period, you better hope that you have a Doc in your flat.

Grumpy

Grumpy isn’t exactly known for having a sunny disposition, for sure. Gruff, grouchy, grumpy – we’ve all been there.

Especially around exam time.

Remember that next time you have a run-in with Grumpy, that underneath it all is someone with a good heart. I hate to say this, but there are so many things that have the potential to bring a student down. Stress from studying, stress from having to live independently, stress from living on a budget – just… stress.

Sometimes, Grumpy needs a little encouragement (or a lecture from Doc, but that’s probably not the best idea). Some positive support from flatmates and the various Wellbeing Services around campus can do wonders – maybe even turn that frown upside down!

Happy

Whenever you see Happy in the corridor on the way to a lecture, or in the kitchen when you’re making dinner, you can always expect a wide smile and a cheerful ‘Hello!’.

This person actively tries to boost the morale of the flat, through the sheer force of their relentlessly cheerful selves. Happy is always up for a celebration – whether that is for someone’s birthday, Christmas, someone’s cat’s birthday, the end of the year…

A wonderful person really, with a tendency to keep lots of sugary stuff and/or bubbly within arm’s reach.

Warning: This person may have a high fluffiness level.

Sleepy

If this isn’t you at some point during the year, I am torn between congratulating you and just calling out your lie.

But when I talk about Sleepy, it’s not just someone who’s tired after a night out… studying in the library (of course).

Sleepy is someone who can be consistently relied on to trudge into the kitchen at an ungodly time of day, bleary-eyed, saying that they have just woken up. This is someone who goes to sleep at 5 am and wakes up at 4 pm, and in winter, never sees the light of day.

(No, really, these people exist.)

Dopey

Lovable person but you know they’re low-key dodgy. Bit dopey, by either definition.

Sneezy

Most people get the sneezes at some point. Especially at the beginning of the year, when everyone plays a game Pass the Freshers’ Flu (which nobody ever wins). The entire flat ends up with a cold at once, which is always fun because we can commiserate in our misery and coordinate a chorus of coughing at night.

However, there will be one person who is ill all the time. So much so, that coughing and sneezing is their normal state. Meet Sneezy.

Bashful

By day, this person may come across as shy or coy. But oh ho, this person is an absolute flirt on a night out!

Bashful is ultimately a romantic. Always looking for the one, but until then, the whole flat can joyfully hear about all the (accidental/non-accidental) drama this person lands themselves into.

It’s always the quiet ones who leave a trail of chaos in their wake.