My Funny Roommate

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It all started with a phone call.

I was eager to get to know my new roommate, especially after hearing wonderful things about the student community at Hillsdale. However, when I called her, I soon became suspicious.

I called her at exactly 10 a.m., the time we had agreed on. When my roommate answered the phone, she expressed how surprised she was that I was punctual.

“I was looking through your Instagram photos, and I thought to myself, ‘She is the kind of girl who would be late to everything,’” she said. “So I am very impressed you called me right on time.”

I thought that was a strange way to greet the person she would be living with for the next year, but I decided to let it roll off my back.

She proceeded to ask me the strangest questions: “Do you plan on having friends over at 2 a.m.?” “Can I have the right side of the room?” “Are you planning on eating in the room? If so, are you going to leave food out on your desk, sitting for days?” “If you snore at night, do I have permission to wake you up and tell you to be quiet?”

As she asked me these questions, memories started to flood my mind. Specifically, memories from kindergarten when children would ask the most unfiltered questions that no one knew how to answer. I responded to each of these questions to the best of my ability, but she never seemed satisfied.

A couple of weeks later, when we met on campus for the first time, we started to get along decently. She seemed nice enough, but our special little bond could only last so long.

It was Sunday evening, and we were in our dorm room studying for upcoming quizzes.

Out of the blue, she said, “Want to know something? You really aren’t like what I thought you would be.”

“Oh, really? How so?” I asked, out of great curiosity.

With a smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye, she said, “Well, when I was scrolling through your Instagram photos before we met I thought you were really skinny. But, I was so glad to meet you and see that you are not. I don’t like super skinny people. So, I am happy that your pictures look different from how you truly are!”

To say I was thrown off by those words would be an understatement, but I was barely fazed by this comment because of who it was coming from. Believe it or not, this was not the worst that had come out of her mouth.

Here I am today, in my second year at Hillsdale College, and we remain roommates. To my surprise, we became very close friends, and now we look back on these times and laugh.

I am not entirely certain how we were able to form such a strong friendship after a rough start, but I have a few ideas. It could be the fact that I love making fun of her and she loves the attention, or that we both have the same favorite Latin professor. Maybe we are both desperate for an honest friend, even if they are brutally honest. All I can say is that I am forever grateful for that random roommate pair that led to this unique, long-lasting friendship.