And your roommate is…
Reading that sentence on UNCgenie was one of the scariest moments of my life. As an incoming freshman, who knew less than five people coming to UNCG, I chose to do random roommate assignment.
Random. A word that would make anyone fearful, and made me fearful, because I knew that random meant unknown. It meant I would not know the person I would have to live with for the next year….
Would we get along? Would we even talk at all? Would we have disagreements? By the end of the year, would we be friend or foe? I knew nothing…. and it was the most scared I have ever been in my life!
I moved in on August 14,2015. It was a stressful morning. I had overpacked and tried to fit everything I thought I would need for a life away from my parents in two cars, and even those two cars were almost not enough. To add to my stress, I was moving into one of the high rise buildings that I prayed I wouldn’t get assigned to. But most importantly, I had realized that I was about to move into a room that I would have to live in with a stranger for the whole school year. Talk about a rough morning.
To continue on, I unloaded my car and was in the elevator going up to my new room. I got off the elevator and walked down the hall to my room. I was so nervous by then because I knew my roommate was already inside as she had to move in a day earlier. I guess you could say my nerves showed, because I fumbled with the keys before I could actually open the door. Once the door opened, there she was and she was…
Smiling!
She looked nothing like the girl I had stalked on facebook, thinking it was her because they had the same name. She didn’t seem mean either, because as soon as she saw how full my parent’s and I hands were, she jumped and offered to carry some of my things. Before I knew it, I had moved all my stuff up and set up my room with the help from my family and new roommate. After saying sad goodbyes to the ‘rents, it was just me…and my roommate.
We both sat down on our own beds, and I don’t know who said something first, but soon we were having a pretty laid back conversation about ourselves and how nervous we were about the start of school. Eventually we had to go to sleep, because we both had a lot to do the next day, but before I dozed off I realized two things:
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My roommate was nothing like I imagined! Even Though I tried to research her on social media and make up what I thought she would be like.
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Maybe my random roommate assignment will turn out well, because it seemed that roommate and I could get along very well.
Fast forward a year and half from that night, and I am still living with the same roommate. Turns out we are basically the same person. It took a little while, but eventually my roommate and I went from strangers to basically sisters. It wasn’t instant like you see on the movies. We did have to set rules for each other once we first moved in. But a lot of progress came from just being open to talking to each other. Even when we weren’t friends, we would come in and have a small conversations before we went to bed. Eventually these small talks resulted in us hanging out with each other doing stuff like: learning new dances in our room, sharing music with each other, going to the Caf, etc. Through all this bonding we became each other’s best friends and now I can not imagine living with anyone else. So my advice to any considering living with a random roommate will be:
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First, be fearless! You never know who you can meet through random assignment
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Don’t trust everything you find on the internet because a lot of it is not true
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Be Patient! Best Friends are not made overnight. It’s okay if you and your roommate are not besties right away, if it is meant to be then you guys will bond soon enough
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Be loyal. Always look out for your roommate, even down to matters of waking them up for class if they don’t hear their alarm. Even if you guys are not besties!
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Learn from each other. Don’t be afraid to change for the better with your roommate. You and your roommate will have so much to offer to each other, so be open to it.
Alright, now that you heard a little bit of my story. Go out and be daring by signing up for a random roommate and you will have a story of your own!