Self Fulfilling Prophesy: A Lesson to be Learned

Self-Fulfilling Prophesy: A Lesson to be Learned Have you ever had an assumption or belief about someone come true? That is what defines a Self-fulfilling Prophesy. That is, when a person’s expectations, thoughts, or beliefs manifest in such a way that in return they become true. These preconceived notions about other people influence how you act toward them and in return this will evoke a response from that person. This response then provides proof of the original expectations.
Picking a college roommate can be a tricky thing to do. It seems that I have heard more horror stories about roommates than good stories. This may be attributed to the fact that people are more prone to talk about their problems and negative situations rather than their positive ones. However, my freshman roommate provided me with one heck of an experience. I met Dylan in high school. He attended an opposing school only thirty minutes away from mine. We recognized each other from the basketball court and numerous track events. We soon became friends when we were introduced at a high school party through a mutual friend. As we became closer friends we both decided to attend Mississippi State University. I had lined up a roommate for freshman year with someone I grew up with, however due to a scholarship, he decided to attend a different school and left me without a roommate. When discussing this with Dylan, I was not aware that he did not have a roommate and we quickly decided to room together. Dylan and I had not known each other very long and even though he seemed to be a good friend and fit as a roommate, I still was weary of living with him. I had no specific reason to believe that we wouldn’t get along but I still could not shake the feeling that things would not go swimmingly. After moving into our dorm, it did not take long for our friendship to take a drastic turn. During fall recruitment into the Greek system, Dylan and I joined two separate fraternities. It wasn’t long after Bid Day that Dylan dropped out of his fraternity. From then on it seemed as if he resented me for joining a fraternity even though we had gone through recruitment together. He started hanging out with an unruly crowd of people and it was not long after that he started neglecting his priorities. I eventually found out that the crowd he was hanging out with was known to dabble in various drugs and everything I did to help just put us at greater odds. He began to get really sloppy by leaving his clothes and trash everywhere in our small living quarters. He seemed to have no regard for my belongings, or me for that matter. He was sleeping all day, staying out all night, and eating all my food when I was out of the room. When Christmas break came around he had a combined 67 absences in his classes and was carrying a 1.2 GPA. I was looking for a polite way to tell him we needed to find new roommates when he called me a few days prior to Christmas. He told me that he was going to withdraw from the university and take a break from school.
The experience I had first semester of my freshman year is a prime example of a self-fulfilling prophecy. I had a preconceived notion that Dylan and I would not get along as roommates and that notion came to fruition once we moved in together. Even though Dylan and I had a lot in common in high school, our priorities changed and forced us to grow apart as friends and roommates in college. Had I had sufficient time to get to know Dylan before we moved in, I may have been able to discern that he and I would not get along well. Even though I did not recognize it beforehand, things still could have turned out differently had we handled our disputes in a different manner. For instance, if Dylan had joined the fraternity he wanted to, a wedge would not have been buried between us causing the initial issues. After recruitment we could not find any common ground between us. We grew apart because we were hanging out with completely opposite crowds. This taught me a lesson about living with other people and helped me throughout the rest of my college career.