Having a roommate is, in a word, stressful. Having a roommate means having to adjust to things that you aren’t used to such as lights turned on in rooms that no one is in, dirty dishes sitting in the sink, those last stragglers of toilet paper sitting on the roll, or your roommate snoring all loud when you’re trying to sleep. I mean the list can go on and on. Tough, right? When you’re transitioning from living with your parents to being on your own once you get to college, you think it’s going to be sunshine and rainbows and everything is going to be right as rain, right?
Well, in the case of Chennel “Jazzy” Rowe, that was definitely not the case. If you haven’t been living under a rock and check Twitter more than you check the local news, then you might’ve heard this story before. If you haven’t, then sit tight and grab your popcorn because you’ve got a big storm coming your way, kid. You’re probably thinking, “How did it a story coming out of Connecticut become a nationwide headline?” The obvious answer: social media. What started from Facebook made its way to Twitter and hooked everyone in like a Shonda Rhimes cliffhanger.
Jazzy Rowe was a freshman who was placed with a random roommate, Brianna Brochu. In the months following move-in day on August 27, Brochu was sending bad vibes such as turning off the light in the dorm room when Jazzy was working on something. If it were me, that would have been strike numero uno because the easiest thing to do would be to ask if I wanted the light to be turned off, and if I did not want the light turned off…then DON’T TURN THE LIGHT OFF.
On top of Brianna already being rude with the light situation, Jazzy was becoming sick and had no idea why. In a video (of which I will provide the link), Jazzy discusses of how she thought that since it was colder in Connecticut that maybe she was coming down with a cold; plot twist: that was not the case. Come to find out that even though the cold never came, the pain in her throat began to increase. With her throat still hurting and the antibiotics she was prescribed not working, Jazzy made the smart decision to move out of the dorm that she shared with Brianna Brochu. She was on the hunt for a new roommate when she was brought to the attention of the Instagram posts that her ex-roommate was posting.
https://heavy.com/news/2017/11/jazzy-rowe-chennel-hartford-roommate-facebook/
The most ironic about this? Jazzy and Brianna did not follow each other on social media. Jazzy was informed by a neighbor of what Brochu was posting. The things that Brochu was posting were pictures of Jazzy eating and the caption saying, “If she only knew where her utensils have been.” I don’t know about you guys, but that definitely would have been strike two AND strike three. Not only did Brochu put the utensils that Jazzy uses to eat with in her mouth, but she was also putting her toothbrush “where the sun don’t shine,” putting moldy clam chowder (or dip) into her coconut oil, and placing her tampon blood on her Steve Madden backpack.
What is wild about this is that it was not a spur of the moment, “I want to make my roommate leave,” kind of deal. Brianna Brochu had this entire thing planned out for a month and a half. She could have killed this girl who simply just wanted to enjoy her freshman year, and for what? All because Jazzy posted some video of the girl snoring. Brochu ended up getting arrested, getting expelled, AND lost her four year scholarship. Also, she was banned from the University of Hartford for life AND she is being charged with not one, but two hate crimes.
If you are in a bad roommate situation or you feel uncomfortable in the environment that you living in on campus, put yourself first and move out. Move in with a friend or if you live close enough, move back home and just become a commuter. You DO NOT have to put up with a roommate or suite-mates who do not want to include you or make you feel inferior to them. Because guess what? You matter! Don’t think about what is best for them; think about what is best for YOU!
