Because I had never had a roommate, this situation made me even more horrified for going to college and having a roommate for a whole year. So when I decided on UMass Amherst and had to start looking for someone, I did not want to do random because it had turned out so strange during this conference. Everybody has heard horror stories about doing random roommates, and a lot of them don’t get along. So when I could not find anyone to room with, I decided to do random, sealing my fate with whatever person that destiny (or the system) gave me.
When I finally found out who my roommate was, I was not sure how to feel. As soon as we started talking, I was hesitantly relieved. We seemed to get along pretty well, so it seemed. Then, once we moved in, I was one hundred percent relieved. Even in the first few days, this randomly paired person was becoming my best friend. Now, as the school year comes to a close, I am so thankful that I did random and ended up with my roommate. She is my best friend, and we’ve already decided that we are probably going to be living together all of college.
Now, I’m not saying that random roommates always work out. I have a friend who can barely converse with her random roommate because of a heavy language barrier. Yet, I know other people who picked their roommates, and ended up hating them. Picking a roommate in general is a huge gamble…random, or pre-selected, you never know what living with a person is like until you actually do it. A random roommate is usually seen as a horrible, terrifying thing, and I can attest to that because I was scared about who I would end up with. But I think that it is just as much a gamble as rooming with someone who you found on the internet and seemed to like. Both of these can end up badly, or wonderful. I was one of the lucky ones.