This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Towson chapter.
Eva Niessner went speed dating! But not for a boyfriend, but rather a new roommate! She shared her experiences with the new Towson sponsered event with HC Towson!
Everybody has a bucket list, right? That list of things they want to accomplish before they die. And one thing I always wanted to try was speed-dating. On April 6th, I got the chance to try it. But this was a little different. The potential partners I was talking to weren’t looking for dates–we were discussing the possibility of moving in together.
Sound a little extreme for the first meeting? Don’t worry. This was roommate speed dating, a way to help people without a roommate in mind find someone to live with next year.
I was a little nervous before I arrived. On the unrealistic side, I was afraid I’d be the only one there. And what if the people who did come were total weirdos?
But there was nothing for me to worry about. I definitely wasn’t the only person to show up (there were actually so many female candidates that we didn’t get through everybody),and the attendees all seemed friendly and normal. Food was provided, and the atmosphere was only slightly awkward–not bad when you’re auditioning a room full of strangers.
The participants were seated at long tables, boys at one and girls at another, and given cards with icebreaker questions on them, such as “Do you smoke?” and “Are you a morning person or a night person?” It was nice having a list to look from in case the conversation started to die, though it wasn’t a problem with a lot of the girls I spoke with. Usually one of us could comment on something and the other would take it from there.
Each pair would have five minutes to discuss their plans for rooming next year, and what kind of roommate they were, as well as their interests and anything else they could think of. When time was called, the pairs would trade information and move on to the next person.
I was surprised at how well I connected with some of the other participants. Five minutes isn’t the best for knowing that another person is your soul roommate, but at least you can get a good impression, call them or add them on Facebook later, and see if you two are interested in putting up with one another for two semesters. It seems more comforting than just dropping in with a random person that you’ve never even talked to. While I’ve had unbelievably good luck with random roommates, not everyone is so lucky. Why leave it up to chance when you just might meet someone awesome?