In response to another article I saw on another platform saying that your roommate from your freshman year is going to be the best person you meet in college, I wanted to let all the incoming freshman know that it's okay if you aren't best friends with your first roommate.
Don't get me wrong, getting along with them is super important and it is really nice to come home to a place where your feel comfortable. However, it is not absolutely crucial for your survival at college to become best friends with the first person you meet, for a lot of reasons.
You will meet plenty of other people throughout the year, especially during the first week of orientation and classes. In college, as long as you are willing to venture out of your room and be yourself, you are going to find people that will love being friends with you. I met some of my best friends during icebreakers or van driving certification. You will be placed in so many situations to meet interesting people within your first month at college you will barely have time to be in your room anyway.
Who you are the first day of orientation is not who you will be by the time the spring comes and that is such a good thing. In college, you are constantly learning and discovering new things about yourself because you will be pushed from your comfort zone while still being in a safe place to explore yourself. Who you become friends with at the beginning of the year might not be who you want to be friends with at the end of they year and that's okay.
To immediately cling to your roommate yes you do have an instant friend but if you aren't with them I have seen it become hard for people to make friends out of their initial friend group. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but as my year went on I found more and more amazing people to be friends with and the girl I am rooming with my sophomore year I didn't meet until the first semester was almost finished (hey Kate, love you).
Now your freshman year roommate will definitely be there with you through some interesting moments. They will see you cry. They will see some of the stressful phone calls with your parents. They will see you at your worst and will still decide to live with you and for that, you have to be grateful. If you don't find yourself attached at the hip do not panic. There are so many other people out there, probably just down the hall.
