This generation is the latest lost generation; drifting around with no real purpose, doing whatever they can to get by – even if it means using people. The recent roommate that I just got  is a prime example of this – due to the circumstances, I will call him his real name; Jon.

I placed an ad on roommates.com three weeks ago seeking a roommate for the room that my [former] best friend left, on March 24 I got an email from a person named Jon asking about the room. We talked a bit and I had him come over to look at the space he’d be renting out, which is what he did on that Friday.

He said he was in urgent need of a place because his girlfriend had kicked him out.

He told me that he is an apprentice electrician and works primarily mornings. I didn’t think much of it on that weekend because I was more relieved that I was able to finally get someone into that room. Over the course of the weekend I asked him what his work schedule looked like, and he told me that he was essentially on call. He said that if he didn’t work Monday, he was almost certain to work the rest of the week.

He didn’t work that Monday, and when I got home from work Tuesday morning (because I work third shift) his truck was in the driveway and I realized that he didn’t work that day either. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were the same thing. He didn’t work one day that entire week. I asked him about it on that Friday and he said that he just didn’t receive any hours and it wasn’t a big deal.

Saturday I ran several errands and kept myself rather busy. Jon’s truck was gone most of the day. Due to my third shift schedule, I went to bed rather early despite having the weekend off. I went to bed at about 5pm and woke up at approximately 3am Sunday morning and went down stairs to get some household chores done. I immediately noticed that the light to the three-season’s room was on and went to see who was out there.

Sitting in my three season’s room is a girl who I had never seen before smoking a cigarette. She didn’t notice me because her back was to the door. I went back to doing my chores thinking I would make an informal greeting with her when she came back into the house.

When she walked past me however, she looked at me then walked right up the stairs and went into Jon’s room. I decided not to make an issue of having this stranger in my home since it was evident that who ever it was, they knew my new roommate.

I figured she was just visiting.

As the day went on however, this girl decided that she would just make herself at home. She was taking shower’s in my bathroom, heating up food in the microwave and walking in and out as she pleased. All while basically ignoring me as if I, the homeowner, wasn’t even there.

I figured she’d be gone by Monday because I assumed that Jon would have to work.

I was wrong on both accounts.

Monday morning when I got home from work, Jon’s truck was in the driveway and the still unknown girl was sitting in my three season’s room once again having a cigarette. I was really getting irritated at this point. I once again refrained from doing anything because it was still unclear to me what was going on.

Tuesday (yesterday) was the final straw however. When I got home from work and saw his truck in my driveway, questions about his employment filled my head. It started to dawn on me that perhaps he wasn’t employed at all, that what he really meant was that him and his girlfriend had been kicked out of the previous place they lived and basically were looking for someone that they could mooch off of for awhile.

In regards to this assumption, I was correct. I called Jon out on this by telling him that the girl (who I STILL didn’t learn the name of) either needed to move out or pay me for staying at my house. I told him that all she is doing is running up my bills and mooching off of me. All he said was, “oh ok”.

While I was asleep yesterday afternoon, him and his girlfriend packed up everything they had and moved out. The room was empty when I woke up at 10pm that evening for work.

In many respects, this is how the millennial generation operates, floating from place to place, job to job hoping that by pure luck they’ll somehow be able to ‘make it’. When things get a little tough, they just move on to the next situation. My [former] best friend was doing this (and continues to do this) and Jon – the guy who I was renting a room to also was doing this.

Jon did give me $20 on his first night here to “cover” for allowing him to move in so fast. Although the gesture was nice, I could only take into consideration that $20 only breaks down to covering only 2 days, not including the utilities he was using.

I’ve learned a few lessons from this experience, the most obvious being that anyone that I rent a room out to needs to pay at least 50% of the first months rent up front. The second is that I need to make a written agreement for any future roommates, and finally I need to make and enforce rules for anyone living here.

Things will get better – I hope.