Ah, the roommate search. You are so excited to finally get into college and the second you have a time to breathe you realize that you are going to need to find someone to share a whole year of your life with. You immediately imagine your best friend and yourself laughing on your XL twin bed at 2 a.m. eating pizza. Life. Is. Good.
However, during this peaceful thought process, you try your best to block out (and fail to) all the horror roommate stories you have heard. You start to panic. You are on a time crunch. Three months until you move in and all the half normal, only slightly weird girls probably have already found their significant other-girl-version roommate. You grab your laptop and sign onto the class Facebook page and are overwhelmed by the short bio's of thousands of your peers. Who would have guessed that if you like to study with, or without, music was such a deal breaker. You don't even know if you like to study with music -- it depends on your mood and the class subject!
You sit down, trying to decide if you should lie about your 10 p.m. bed time, or the fact that you sleep with a night light, and realize that your roommate might find out you lied and then hate you forever, ruining your entire college career. You think to yourself, "why is everyone going to see my little roommate bio? Isn't there another page just for girls to see?" Why should boys see your living preferences? That's creepy.
You scroll up past a few dozen bios and see that, yes, there are multiple websites specifically made for your school to find a roommate. You click on the link and immediately begin filling out what is important to you, and your habits. You click submit, sigh with relief, and head to bed. The next morning you wake up and see you have six Facebook messages from girls! You are jumping with joy -- potential roomies! You click on each one and immediately start stalking their profiles -- Ooh, she's cute! Oh, my gosh, she has such cute clothes and she's my size. She plays soccer, too! Wow, she is beautiful! And many more thoughts run through your head.
You soon find yourself checking out their high school homecoming photos, and realize you still haven't responded to her message! You scramble to the first message and reply along the lines that you are interested, but want to get to know her first. You message back and fourth a few times and you start to worry -- what if she thinks I am a loser with no plans, today, just sitting on my laptop? You play it cool and tell her that you have to head out. She gives you her number so you can text her, and you practically do a back flip that you got her digits. You sign off your Facebook and stare at her number in your phone. When should I text her? You decide to wait exactly three hours and forty minutes before you text her.
"Hey, whats up? It's (insert name here)."
You haven't spend this long on a text message since your sophomore year crush. You press send and wait until she reads or responds. When she does you immediately start asking her non-creepy questions about her hobbies and plans for college. You do this again with every other girl that messaged you on Facebook until you find one you click with. The second you sign the roommate agreement you begin showing all your family and friends class photos of her as if she was your own child.
When move-in day comes, you make an effort to look semi-approachable despite the fact it is 90 degrees and you have endless boxes of stuff to carry in. Meeting your roomie for the first time is a big deal, and by no means do you want to look like a sweaty slob. The moment comes, and you both meet each other and try to maintain small talk while your family unloads your belongings. When Mom starts crying, and the hour long goodbye ends, you are left alone with your new roommate. You feel thankful to have someone to talk to and relate to. You both take a quick power nap and head to orientation together as you begin the first of your college adventures.
