The thought of starting freshman year of college is definitely an intimidating one. From planning to your schedule to choosing your dorm, every decision you make leading up to your first year at college is a big one. The biggest and, often times, most impactful of these situations is choosing your roommate.
For the average high school senior, the roommate search begins the day you decide where you'll be spending the next four years. You'll post a short description of yourself on the "University of ____ Class of 20__" Facebook page - which will likely include your love of Netflix and the fact that you definitely plan on going out but will be sure to focus on school work too - and you'll cross your fingers hoping that your future roommate and best friend sends you a message asking if you've found anyone to live with yet. You'll message back and forth until one of you decides to take the conversation to text, and you'll eventually seal the deal as future roommates. You have just about everything in common and you're pretty sure they're your long lost twin. Right?
Not so much. Move in day comes and you notice that your similarities end at the laundry detergent and dryer sheets that you both bought. Your roommate a huge mess and you're a total neat freak. Their major is super hard, where yours definitely isn't. They're from a place nothing like where you call home and you've never even heard of half of the phrases they use in daily conversation. You may find yourself worrying that this isn't the perfect match you've been hoping for.
Well, that could not possibly be farther from the truth. Though it may seem trying at first, living with someone who isn't your exact replica is the biggest blessing in disguise. At first, their messy ways will frustrate you to no end and your roommate will definitely tire of your reminders to clean up. But by the end of the year, you'll reach a happy medium. They'll be a little cleaner, you'll be a little messier, and you'll come to laugh at each other's cleaning habits. The fact that you have completely opposite majors doesn't hurt either. You can always cheer each other on and you're never competing for a better grade because you don't have a single class in common. They'll make fun of the phrases you use and you'll do the same, and you may even find yourself using the one phrase you thought was so strange the first time they said it. You'll explore each others hometowns and you'll never run out of things to talk about.
So when you realize that your roommate is basically nothing like you, don't give up hope. Your personalities may just be so different but such a perfect balance that the phrase "yin and yang" becomes the go to of your whole floor when describing your relationship, and you may have found a best friend for life.
