Sharing a closet sized room with someone I don’t know does not sound appealing. Random “roommate-ing” seems to be the living style of choice for college bound seniors, but there are some who decided to bring a part of home with them.

                When my admission letters started arriving, I began seeing myself on campuses. What it would be like to attend class, go to sporting events, meet friends…and live with someone else. Instant panic.  As much as I tried, I couldn’t see myself living with another girl who I didn’t know. What if we were opposites? What if she was strange? What if we didn’t get along?  The questions kept coming, and I couldn’t find the answers.

                As my friends and I made our decisions for the upcoming year, my answer came in the form of a short, bubbly, blonde girl named Ellen. We had both decided on Marquette University and shared similar feelings about roommates.

                Everyone knows the myth that damns friends to disaster if they decide to room together in college. Living together supposedly evokes a vicious cycle that slowly deteriorates your friendship. First, you’re annoyed, and then the petty fights set in, followed by feelings of over exposure. Then it’s over. Friendship terminated.

                Obviously Ellen and I kept the “bff” spiel in mind.  By no means did we want our friendship to end after a measly ten months. So we laid it all out on the table and tried to identify every tick that could lead to an explosion. Our first positive realization was that Ellen and I were not the dependable, inseparable, known each other since fourth grade, type of friends. We had only started getting close at the beginning of our senior year. Not only did we consider ourselves fairly “new” friends, but we both shared a similar quality when it came to all our friendships: independence. Neither of us needed to be with our friends all the time. We both had no problem doing our own thing for a night, or hanging out with different people for the weekend.  In other words, we don’t need to be up in our friends business all the time.

                When it comes to interests, I don’t think matchmaker.com could put a more perfect set together. Our musical preferences are dead on, weekly TV shows are a match, social life perfect, sense of style the same, everything. Hanging out with each other is simple; we both enjoy the same things.

                When it comes to our personalities, were not as similar. I’m a bit more laid back than Ellen, but she’s a pro at organization. I tend to procrastinate, whereas Ellen always has her time managed to a tee. Where one of us lacks, the other one makes up. We both have extremely weird quirks that don’t bother each other. Compatible personalities seem like they would fit much better in a dorm then personalities that are exactly the same.

                People believe that a random roommate is just another part of the college experience. It gives you a clean slate and allows you to branch out on your own. I can’t argue with that. For all I know, I could be missing out on a new best friend. But the way I see it, I’m starting an entirely new chapter of my life with a good friend by my side.