From the Daily Northwestern, I'm Erika Schmitt. This is Season 2, Episode 7 of Digital Diaries, a weekly podcast following the college experience, and asking students a question about Life on Northwestern. This week is all about roommates. You know, the strangers that you have to live with for a couple of years, the people who know when you sleep, when you eat, when you take a shower, some students search for their roommates on class Facebook groups, while others leave their fate up to the Northwestern gods and sign up for a random roommate.
Residential services randomly assigned Weinberg's sophomore Charlotte Audemogum to her roommate, Weinberg's sophomore Emily Linen before their freshman year. Audemogum decided to go with a random roommate for a couple of reasons. Me, like, an account on Instagram and it was like, oh, like, choose who you want to match or, like, keep a comment on them. And that, honestly, was just overwhelming in itself for me.
And I also bought it in regular, so I felt like I was behind because at that point, there were, like, so many people who posted and I was like, oh my god, I'm not going to be anyone. And so then I thought to myself, if I go random, if I don't like the person, they're not going to take it personally because we did not mutually agree to be with each other. We just got set up randomly. Linen's got an early decision by how the same mindset as Audemogum.
It was just overwhelming to, like, look through everything I feel like. And then I also figured the way the questionnaire works, leading times wouldn't be an issue. And we would be on the same terms in terms of living together, which I felt like was the main goal. And it worked out really well.
After living together in West Fairchild for the first year, their roommates again this year, but in 1838 Chicago, we both agreed that we wanted to stay South Campus. And so we were already on the same page. We already knew that our sleeping habits were very similar. And we didn't want to go through the process of having to find another person and then work around them, like, adjust.
It's already working. Might as well, like, keep going with it. And it's worked out well. What advice do you have for people with a roommate or who planned a room with someone else?
Honesty is so important. Like, you have to set boundaries. That was an issue with some people on our floor last year, like, not knowing how to have those conversations or, like, being afraid of offending them. If it's something that's impacting your wellness, you just have to bring it up.
And, like, having an honest conversation is so important. Like, remembering that we're all adults. When you first meet up or you first talk, I would say, this is my sleeping schedule or this is how I study. Audemogum also says, sometimes when people she knew decided to live with their friends, it was not as ideal as they anticipated.
I think a lot of our friends were scared to go random, and that's why they ended up with their friend. But I think that actually complicated a lot of their relationships with each other and added a layer of issues that probably never would have happened if they hadn't been roommates. So if you do decide to become roommates with someone you are friends with, I would definitely evaluate, like, could you guys live together? Because being friends with someone is one thing, but then living with them is another thing.
Like, Lina and Honmogum, communication sophomore Alex DeVito and Drew Sliger were randomly assigned to each other at Willard, and they say they're a perfect pair. I was lazy. I did not even look for roommates. I was like, I'm just gonna go random.
I'm not gonna stress about it. Whatever happens happens. It was like an email I think over the summer when they're like, this is your roommate. But then you found each other over Instagram.
I think it'll be texted like a bit. Not a lot, though. There was a monster on his water bottle. And I was like, okay, we're good.
We're on the same wavelength. DeVito and Sliger say they have similar living habits. I would say I'm a kind of messy person. I just have a lot of random things that are scattered about.
So I was kind of scared coming in. What if I have a really neat roommate doesn't stand for any of that, but luckily Drew likes my things. I'm kind of on like the borderline of me and messy. So it wasn't something I was too worried about.
But I think definitely when we were first getting to know each other, like first living together, it was something we had to figure out. But I feel like especially going into this year, our second year living together, we're very much comfortable with what we have in the room. I didn't think we would become this close. I mean, all this stuff you hear on like social media from like people from your high school have already gone to college is that you only really hear the bad stuff about random roommates.
And also we have a lot of the same interest. Dumb room decor. Similar sense of humor. I feel like it's good because I could just come in and start screaming.
And it's fine. Yeah, we watch movies, Alex's projector on the ceiling. And like how often we're in the room is crazy. Being in such close physical proximity to someone else.
At all times, like when you're in your home can be like a little daunting. But like it's working out. DeVito says sometimes the best advice is to go with the flow. I did the whole on the group me searching for roommates.
And I had a couple that I was thinking about but like knowing them now I'm like I would not have been happy living with you so like trust the process. Slager says it's okay even when the selection process doesn't go perfectly. If you're in your roommate, don't mesh 100% like that's fine. There's always going to be other people on campus.
You can like get to know and meet and hang out with. They think they're perfect or in other words. Hottest roommate pair. Should I know?
Weinberg senior Natalia Kamino and Madil senior Maria Kamano weren't just roommates. They were bunk mates. Well, I was growing on the Facebook group. There's like two days before the roommate selections closed.
My like song release profile. And she mentioned her favorite artist was not funny. It was just like before he was pretty big. And so I was like, oh my God, I love Bad Bunny.
And then Maria went, oh my God, I love him too. Where do you want to live on campus? And she just went south. I'm thinking 1838.
And I was like, perfect. That's where I want to live. And then Maria was like, here's my Snapchat. I also realized that we follow each other on Instagram.
So I started DMing there. The typical small talk began. But the final determiner that they would live together was that they both had a chair. They put all their clothes on and they agreed that they had no expectation to become friends.
They lived in Hobart House. The women's residential college together during their freshman year where they shared their bunk bed. I was a bottom bunk and it was a top bunk. So like, if she was like staying up late to go study, I would know when she came back because she didn't get into the bed.
So eventually we started doing like a lot of stuff together in conclusion. The bunk bed brings people together. According to Kamano, the adjustment for them was not too bad. I'm only child.
So for me, I was really nervous, but I had gone to a lot of sleep away camps before. So I kind of gotten like the experience of like having a roommate and I'd have such terrible roommates there that I was just like, as long as this person is just clean and respectful, I will be okay. Kamino said that during COVID, they had to make adjustments to their living situation. Freshman year, like everything was new and sophomore year when we came back in January.
It was COVID and so like the boundaries we had about like what we were comfortable with in regards to like CO regulations. Like we were kind of like a pod and so we had to kind of talk to each other like, Hey, what people are we comfortable with seeing? Now the two of them are known as a duo, but Kamino did not expect their friendship to be what it is today. Don't have expectations.
I think that's why to some extent we worked out like we didn't force anything. What advice would you get to people who are searching for their perfect roommate match? Find people who are like you in a sense, but different from you and others. For example, me and I are both night people, so we stay awake for really late.
For us, it really worked out that I'm like very extroverted and I'm very like outgoing and then knocks very like calm as she keeps me very collected. I think we just balance each other. Exactly. From the Daily Northwestern, I'm Erika Schmidt.
Thanks for listening to another episode of Digital Diaries. This episode was reported and produced by me. The audio editor of the Daily Northwestern is myself. The digital managing editors are Joanne Hainer and Olatunji Osia Williams.
And the editor in chief is Alex Perry. Make sure to subscribe to the Daily Northwestern's podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or SoundClouds here next week's episode.