Hii, my name is Charlise Larot and I’m from San Diego, California. I am fully committed to UCI, and majoring in literary journalism. I love hanging out with my friends, reading, traveling, and finding good places to grub. (I loooove a good sweet treat). Some of my favorite artists are Laufey, Olivia Rodrigo, and Beabadoobee. I’m looking for roommates and looking forward to making new friends so please reach out!! IG: @charlise.jayne

Throughout my four years of high school, no amount of icebreakers could have prepared me to create a sales pitch to advertise myself like a product with 5 to 10 photos of myself, and a short bio representing my entire personality to be posted on a college’s incoming freshman’s Instagram page. I felt like I was creating a dating profile, but instead of trying to attract a boyfriend, I wanted a roommate to spend the next school year with. I spent a full week curating my submission to the account. I wanted to make sure it was perfect.

Growing up and dreaming about going to college, I would always get so excited about getting to decorate my own dorm room and live with the perfect roommate who I would be BFFs with. But I never once thought about what it would take to find said roommate. In these daydreams of mine, the dorm already came with a built-in best friend. However, as senior year and college decision season snuck up on me, I came to realize the daunting reality of my dorming future.

So I stalked the various UCI 2028 Instagram accounts to see who had already posted, what types of photos they had, and what they wrote for their bios. A new fear was unlocked: what if my “perfect roommate” already found someone and I would be left, heartbroken, with no one to room with? I did consider “going random” where you fill out a personality questionnaire and based on those answers, the housing system pairs you with someone who has similar answers. However, after months of uncertainty about college decisions, I wanted to be in control of this one aspect of my future.

So once I finally felt good about a carousel of pictures and a decent bio, I submitted them to the 2028 Instagram account. Due to the overabundance of people sending in their own profiles to be posted, it took about a week for my photos and bio to be uploaded. So while I was waiting, I started reaching out to different girls who I thought matched my vibe and seemed to have similar interests. This wasn’t too much of a problem for me because I felt like I was able to find a lot of people who matched my energy, my main problem though was finding people who were actually committed to UCI already. There were so many people already featured who were “99% committed” (whatever that means) or were not committed, but UCI was among their top choices. A new fear unlocked: reaching out to someone, spending so much time talking to them, and they don’t even end up going to UCI. 

So I went into major investigating mode for this portion of my roommate search. I was looking obsessively through posts, highlights, and tagged pictures. Anything to work up the courage to actually DM them and say hi. I felt like I was trying to slide into someone’s DMs and flirt with them. “Friend-flirting” to put a name to it. I desperately wanted to say the right thing, keep the conversation going, and see if we were compatible as friends and hopefully roommates. Then finally asking them to be my roommate would be me “asking them to go steady.” 

Since the beginning of my search to the time I’m writing this opinion, I have talked to 15 different girls as prospective roommates.

The first girl I reached out to had already found roommates (my first fear!), but she then sent me the profile of another girl who was looking for someone to live with. However, I didn’t feel like our personalities really matched. From there, I realized just how much work I was in for. Some girls did reach out to me first, but after a couple of days my DMs were filled with unread messages and I got so overwhelmed I unintentionally ghosted a few people for a day or two (whoops! I’m just a teenage girl). I felt like I was in 15 different talking stages, and I was not built for that lifestyle. I don’t know how anyone has the time to balance anything more than five different conversations, let alone 15, and keep each going. Some of the conversations I had felt forced, some felt like we were going in circles, and some were just empty. 

There was one girl I reached out to whom I believed to be my roomie soulmate. We even agreed to meet up on UCI admitted students day, but before we even could, she somehow found her roommates an hour after I “asked to go steady.” Turns out, she was seeing other people. However, that same day two girls reached out to me, and now I am proud to say that they are now two out of three of my roommates (but I am still looking for a third).

However, it did take me about a month to reach this point. So, to all the seniors who have yet to look for roommates (and even the juniors for next year,) heed my warning: if you chose to look for a roommate before college, mentally prepare yourself to have to put more effort than you think into navigating through the online platform that is finding your perfect match while “roommate speed dating”.