Now that I am officially signed and committed to a college, my journey for a roommate has begun.

First, I joined a group chat for all accepted students and made a profile for everyone to view. I included some fun facts about myself, my living style, and uploaded a picture. Then, I sent out a text sharing my hobbies and preferred dorm style, and I patiently waited.

While waiting, I endlessly searched many profiles and stumbled upon some of the worst traits of a roommate…

The most frequent thing I saw were cats. When the prompts were “things that cheer you up” or “my best friend is…,” tons of people said cats along with a weird cat emoji. This may not seem weird at first, but it was all over their pages, and almost all of them said the cat is non-negotiable and will live in the dorm. I am new to living with someone random, and I do not need their cat there too.

Another thing that bugged me when looking for a roommate was when people put that they do not EVER want anyone in the room. I get that to some extent but if my roommate and I are not friends, I would like to hang out with other people during reasonable hours. I do not mind having people over and being social, but finding someone like me is proving to be hard.

Being an early riser is another popular thing among the profiles. I find this inspirational because I wish it was me getting up and getting things done, but unfortunately, it is not. If I get woken up at the crack of dawn to my roommate turning on all the lights, I will be very cranky and upset.

I asked Emma Fredman ’23 how her search for a roommate was going and she said, “I actually have met a lot of super nice people and already found two potential options. I am super excited to dorm at Johns Hopkins!” I am very glad that Emma’s roommate search is going better than mine.

I have about two weeks before I need to fill out the rooming application. My journey is far from over, but I hope that my search starts to get better as the date comes closer.