There are so many events that happen during your senior year of high school: applying to colleges, finishing up classes, and most importantly - finding a roommate whom you hope to spend the next four years of your life with. Some people like to just have a random roommate, some like to room with a friend they already know, and some go to the efforts of seeking out a brand new person. Many colleges have a Facebook page that makes this task much easier. But when messaging people you have never met this can be super awkward. I like to relate this to dating.
The first step in finding a roommate is to post a biography of yourself on the Facebook page. This is similar to a dating website. Post your biography: What do you like to do? What kind of movies do you watch? Food? Music? You have to be sure you bio sounds interesting so that you can bring in the kind of person you think you could live with.
The second step is to message other people. This is the awkward part because you don't want to immediately bring up rooming together. This will make you sound eager. Similar to dating, you don't want someone to think you are obsessed with them and are too eagerly trying to get a date.
The third step is actually asking the person to room with you. So many thoughts come to mind when this happens: Will they like me back? Do they already have a roommate? Do they even think I'm interesting? Kind of like dating, what if the person has no intentions to date you and you just sound dumb asking? Either way, dating or finding a roommate, its best just to ask and find out instead of wondering if this person would have really been right for you.
Next, this step could go two ways. If the first person says no, better start looking for another. Plan A may have turned you down, but plan B may think you're interesting enough to live with (or date). The other way this could go is the person says yes. Now you have to meet in person. Online dating can be weird considering you don't know if that person will even like you outside of social media. So how can you commit to living with a person if you've never actually met them?
You'll see people around campus that you considered rooming with, but decided against. This feels like seeing an ex around campus. Then you tell you current roommate about it and it feels like telling your current lover about a past one. College is weird.
Maybe the roommate works out, maybe they don't. Just like dating, you'll either find someone who you can only get along with for so long, or you'll find someone who will be in your life forever.
