With freshman year winding down, it’s time to give a long overdue “thank you” to the thing I was most worried about: my random roommate pairing. Before starting college, I stressed out about so many things, like what classes I should take, what I still needed to buy, and how I’d live on my own. Even with all of this, there was nothing I stressed about more then who I’d be sharing a small, cinderblock shoebox with.
After hearing dozens of roommate horror stories, I was terrified of going for a random roommate. I mean, what if they were secretly planning to kill me, or collected their hair, or something worse––what if they just flat out didn’t like me? Eventually (and partially due to the fact that I was late in filling out a housing application), I decided to just go for a random roommate and hope for the best. A week before move-in day, after one messed up housing application and three room assignments later, I finally got the email assigning me my roommate, and man, has it been an interesting time.
Before moving in, I spent so much time worrying about whether this random pairing would work, that I never took into consideration just how thankful I should even be for this person. Moving to a new city and starting over at a new school is terrifying, to say the least, and your roommate has seen you through it all. Just judging from saying goodbye to our families and setting up our dorm on move in day, to going through withdrawal from each other before we’ve even moved out and all the times in between, I’d suggest to anyone that random roommate is the way to go.
The possibly arbitrary survey may seem daunting, and I guess we’ll never know if they actually take it into account. However, a random roommate pairing could bring you someone you might’ve never met without it, and I can almost assure you they won’t be plotting your murder or collecting their hair. As scary as it can be, I’m so thankful for my random roommate pairing, and would strongly suggest it to anyone worried about finding a roommate. After all, you could end up finding an amazing friend in the process.