For the past two years, I have had random roommates. While living in the dorms my freshman year, I had three random roommates. Although I had requested one of them, I had no idea who she really was. We were able to chat a bit and then decided that we could probably live with one another. The other two were completely random, but also had happened to request each other.

Then, my second year of school came around and once again, I was living with random people. I knew one of the girls, but not very well. She was in my house and we hadn’t hung out a lot before, but I needed a place to live and she and her other friends needed another person for their apartment. I was lucky to be the only person with her own room in the apartment; therefore, if I ended up not getting along with some of the girls, I at least didn’t have to share a room with them.

Now, there are some people who have had horror stories with roommates. They could’ve been rude, messy, unpleasant to be around, etc. However, I have been fortunate enough to not have had these experiences. I’ve been lucky to have been able to become friends with people that I would’ve have, had I not lived with them. They may not be my best friends or the people that I go out with on the weekends, but they’re people that I can definitely consider a friend.

Another reason why having random roommates can be a good thing is that you can get some space from your friends. I’ve known many people throughout the years who have lived with their best friends before and have actually had their friendships wrecked because of it. In some cases, yes, living with your best friends can still work out well and you don’t want to kill one another; but having space away from them can be healthy for your friendship.

The last reason I would like to touch on is that you learn to live and communicate with others who are different from you. Living with random people is a learning experience. In the future, you’re going to meet and work with a variety of different people, so why not live with people who are different from you? You can learn so much from those people and get a different perspective on things.

Next year, I will be living with friends of mine who I’ve known for a while. I’m really excited to be living with people I actually know, but I don’t regret living with random people for the last two years. I’ve been able to learn so much from those seven girls the last few years and I’m glad that I’m able to call those girls my friends now. Even though I know some of you can’t say the same for how your random roommates have turned out over the years, I do think that it’s a great way to meet new people and potential new friends.