Any college student can tell you, moving in with your first roommate is a truly terrifying experience. What no one tells you exactly how it goes, which is probably the worst part of the entire thing. There is nothing more terrifying than the mystery of it all. How are supposed to know if your roommate is your future best friend or a Pokemon collecting ferret enthusiast? However, if you’re lucky enough to hit the jackpot and get matched with a normal roommate, then here’s what you can expect the road to becoming friends and roomies, "froomies" for short, to look like.
1. The first few days. There’s no sugarcoating it, you’re terrified. You’re rooming with a complete and utter stranger and it’s freaking you out. Not to mention you change clothes in the bathroom because you’re scared to strip down in the room.
2. Settling in. You’ve made it past the initial freak out, and you’ve started to get used to the person in the bunk opposite of your own. Plus, you haven’t caught them watching you sleep or anything, thank gosh. So far, so good.
3. Getting to know you. Now that you’ve been together for a while, things are starting to warm up. Now it’s time to divulge to them your entire life story. You end up telling them everything right down to that one time in kindergarten when you sneezed and a ladybug came out (true story).
4. Becoming attached at the hip. Whether it’s the dining hall, mail services or out to parties, you go everywhere together. This becomes so excessive you begin to wonder if the people you meet together would recognize one of you without the other there.
5. Developing new types of communication. Soon, you’ll start to notice that you two have a language native to just your own room. This may get you some confused looks from other friends (especially when you call your snack drawer “the kitchen”), but hey, it comes so naturally you don’t even notice.
6. Feeling comfortable enough to be brutally honest. Sooner or later, every dynamic duo learns how to be brutally honest without being mean. This is doubly true for roommates. So, whether it’s giving you their opinion on the wording of a text, or telling you the short you dip dyed are ugly, your a true “froomie” will always speak the truth.
7. Befriending their friends. After hearing so much about their high school friends, it’s hard not to become weirdly invested in their lives. Especially when you're constantly in the background of Snapchats and FaceTime requests headed their way. So, Instagram follow requests and Facebook stalking are a natural next step.
8. Sticking together in sickness and in health. Inevitably, one of you will get sick. And when it rains, it pours. Your room will become a quarantine zone and your other friends will want nothing to do with you two. But you’ll never be alone when you have your equally diseased buddy in the bunk next to yours to help you through so sickness.
9. Learning each other’s senses of humor, at each other's expense. When you live with someone, you see them at their best...and their worst. And in their worst moments, what’s a better pick me up then having your roommate there to laugh at you and call you a goon.
10. Realizing you’re not just roommates, but friends. It should come to no surprise to you that this person you’ve been living with for several months now has become your very close friend. After going through as big of a transition as going to college together, it’s no surprise that you’ve got a pretty solid bond.
11. Freaking out when you realize you’re not always going to be roommates. Just as quickly as you moved in together, you’ll eventually move out just as quickly. It really is a truly scary thought, not having someone to watch “Full House” and share Oreos with. So scary, you practically want to scream, “Don''t leave me!”
