One of the biggest risks I’ve taken since moving to college was the decision to go with a completely random roommate. When signing up for on-campus housing, you have to take a personality test of sorts in order to match with potential roommates. It compares your percentages of similar answers and allows you to write a bio for yourself so others can reach out to you in hopes that you will request to be each other’s roommate in the upcoming semester. The process can be very stressful, and when I was going through the whole process I felt the need to find my perfect roommate right at that moment. I spent a good bit of time evaluating the percentages and reading how these people described themselves, mostly because I was eager to know sooner rather than later who I’d end up living with. I sent messages to multiple people trying to establish some kind of meaningful connection, but each of them seemed to fall apart within a matter of days. At one point, I thought that I had found someone that I’d want, and we requested each other. But that, too, unfortunately fell through the cracks.
My mom was encouraging me to keep searching. She kept saying that if I kept going, eventually I’d find someone. It was hard enough to get in contact with all of the potential people to begin with, so I opted for a random selection that would be revealed the day of housing assignments. I was nervous for sure, but I figured that if the person ended up being a total disaster, I could always swap rooms or figure out a way to deal with any problems.
I waited patiently for the assignments to release, hoping to start building a friendship with this elusive person. When they finally came out, I jotted down her email and sent her one within the hour. She had no social media presence whatsoever, so I couldn’t really get an idea of who she was or even what she looked like. In the email, I gave her my phone number and social media handles so we could get better connected. She ended up not responding to me for three days because she doesn’t check her email very often, but sure enough we start chatting a little bit here and there.
Throughout the duration of the summer, we didn’t really talk much. Other than an occasional discussion about who’s bringing a rug or TV, our conversations were relatively nonexistent. When I moved in, I didn’t even know what she looked like.
I ended up doing early move-in, so at the time she was moving in I wasn’t in the room. I came back from band practice to find her setting up a shelf with one of her friends (poorly, might I add). I didn’t quite know what I was expecting, but I knew we’d get along instantly.
It was, of course, awkward at first. We went out to dinner with our suitemates on that first night to get to know one another better, and we had to go through the initial icebreakers and inquiring each other’s majors and such. But once we got over that first little obstacle, it was perfect. I never could have imagined that she would be so perfect in every possible way. We get along so well; we’ve never had anything to actually disagree on, we have the same sleep schedule, we enjoy the same shows, listen to similar music, and are equally untidy. It was so easy for us to get close, and living with her now feels like the whole experience is a really long sleepover.
She is such an incredible person, it’s impossible not to love her. She’s absolutely hilarious, incredibly intelligent, and so beautiful. She has a huge heart that cares for everyone around her, and she has a delightful energy that makes you never want to leave her. I genuinely get sad whenever she leaves because I miss being around her. We have this ongoing “agreement” that we have to let the other roommate know when they leave at least 48 hours in advance so that the other roommate can emotionally prepare to be apart from the other. One day, she told me that I was the perfect roommate, and I told her that she was my perfect roommate as well. After that, it kinda just stuck, and we often refer to the other as Perfect Roommate. I honestly could not be happier with who I was paired with; she was definitely worth the wait.
I could gush about my Perfect Roommate all day, but I want to conclude by saying that I never would have met her if we hadn’t both decided to take a chance and leave the selection up to fate. Making such a strong connection with someone so early on really helped me enjoy my college experience more, and it even gave me a support system from the get-go. My advice: don’t limit yourself to rooming with someone you know or someone you’re matched with, because you might just randomly happen upon your perfect match.