As many seniors prepare to enter college, they are given the option to mutually pick their roommate with another person they found before hand or they can opt to do random roommates determined by the college. I chose the latter. Here is a letter I wrote to my theoretical roommate who I never picked, as I am doing random roommate instead. 

Dear lost roommate I never picked,

I’m sorry I never put in the effort to check out the Facebook page or room surf to find you. I know, I am as devastated as you to have never entered our contrived relationship based off of our Facebook profiles. It was for the better as we both know the result is us pulling our hair out in frustration at each other by the end of first semester. First, it would have been the neatness of our dorm, then the alarm clock for your 9 a.m. class, and by the time you start inviting friends over, we would have been in a silent cold war. The little things you don’t see in a person until you have lived with them for six months would have overpowered your outgoing personality I thought I saw while I was stalking you online.

However, don’t take it personally that I am cynical about our inevitable doom. We were never meant to be. Though you and I both share the same interests, there would have been nothing new in our relationship. Nothing to make talking with you interesting or different. If I wanted to talk to someone with the same interests as myself, I would go talk to a mirror. I need someone different than myself, and you are the opposite of that.

An early breakup is a better option than the one I described above. We would have gotten our hopes up. I would have been excited to play FIFA with you and you would have been excited to talk about football. But it would have been too much. Eating chocolate is delicious, but after too much it gets disgusting.

This is why diversity is needed, and this is why we are not meant for each other. But do not give up hope. Though we never met each other, the random people you and I will be assigned to will have a greater chance of being different than us. This change in pace will be welcome to us both. If for some reason those roommates do not work out, then we can both find our own friends in other places, as we won’t feel obligated to stay friends with our now distant roommates.

Best,

Tyler Siegel