My roommate: a story of alleviation and tolerance – The Second Part

It is always said that beginnings are the hardest part of each new experience, but I do not think this was the case of sharing a room with Daniel. It has been six weeks now since we started living together and sharing all our stuff in a room. Honestly, I did not think that we would be this much good as roommates, but my thought could not be further from the reality! I would explain this in three main examples.

First, sleeping! I recently have acted so much like a night owl, waking up at 9p.m. and staying up to attend the classes of the next day, then go to bed! Very unlike me, Daniel sleeps early and wakes up early. Considering that we are living in the same room, we had to talk about this issue and come to an agreement. He suggested that I stay in the room while no light would be on. However, I knew that even if I would do this, the noise I might make would disturb the sweet dreams Daniel would be having! Consequently, I decided to stay in the room for as long as Daniel is not going to his bed. Once he wants to sleep, I leave the room and continue studying in the study room of either my dorm or the library.

Second, worshipping. Unlike sleeping, this is not a doing mutual between us. Daniel is an Atheist so he never practices any kind of worship. In contrast, it means so much for me to worship Allah through five daily prayers and reading Quran regularly. I sometimes forget the prayer rug in the middle of the room; sometimes I would unintentionally read Quran loudly, and I may invite some Muslim guys to pray together while Daniel is in the room. He was completely okay with all of this, and he never complained about it to me or even just showed some inconvenience. To him, it could be just a way to tolerate my practice of my religion, but to me it absolutely meant way more. I believe it is not always easy to tolerate “completely” different beliefs, and I am the kind of really religious Muslim. So when Daniel accepts that I practice my deep beliefs, which severely contradict with his, in front of him and daily, this is absolutely some kind of treasure and luck I have found!

Third, using each other’s stuff. This specific example is the largest part of why I entitled this post with its name “My roommate: a story of alleviation and tolerance”. Remember the first part of this post last week? When he sent me a package of sheets and necessary stuff for a freshman. When Daniel arrived, he got a micro-fridge and a stand-light. One day when I had bought some cheese and bread for suppers, I was going to put these in the fridge available for all residents of Catawba, and I had to write my name on it and get to the kitchen whenever I want to make a sandwich at 3a.m.! Without me asking, Daniel offered me to use his micro-fridge for storing all and whatever I buy. It was really so generous form him, and I had nothing but a deep sense of gratitude and respect and all that I could do to reward him for caring about a person he met just few weeks ago. Another day when I was doing some “nerding”, the dim light at the ceiling of my room was not enough for my poor eyes to still look at the book without pain. I looked around and saw the stand-light Daniel had next to his desk. I texted  him to ask to use his light and here is how our texts went

“Hey Daniel! Can I, please, use your stand-light? I am finding some kind of hardship studying on the dim light of our room.”

“absolutely man! It is yours, too!”

And anyone reading this could feel how much he alleviated the pain my eyes were having and the burden of going to study in the library, where no music or loud reading is allowed.