Spring-Summer 2010: I finished up senior year at a tiny college in northern Ohio, and preparing to move to North Carolina to start graduate school. Between June and August, I really wanted to move to NC before school started, so I paid $300 a month for the guest bedroom in the house of a 20-something woman whose nuclear engineering student/former Marine husband was away all summer on some kind of internship/co-op deal... Against my parents' better judgment, I packed up my little Dodge Neon with clothing and blankets, drove 9 hours by myself for the first time ever, met this lady I'd chatted with and emailed from craiglist, and we begun our 2-month sleepover. I had found a promising living setup with a UNC alum who was also preparing to start her grad studies (in Physical Therapy) and had a lot of similar values and wants in a home, so by long-distance (having only talked on the phone or facebook chat), we agreed to be roomies, she gave her good word on an apartment complex and I sent a lease in the mail in March with plans to show up on the doorstep in August just in time for classes. Results: Success! I still keep in touch with both of them (mostly via facebook), had a blast that first summer in NC, and a great intro to Chapel Hill life from a veteran!
School year 2011-2012: This tale is one of incompatibility- but it just goes to show why my creepy internet stalker way works better for good roommate-ships. ;) So I stayed in that apartment another year after the roomie moved out in favor of a quieter home to study-- so the complex paired me with a rando (AND didn't bother to tell me...I was in Ohio when I got a text from a strange number asking if they could rearrange the kitchen... shock!), according to some kind of "roommate matching" profile which resulted in two completely opposite people who barely spoke to each other during the 9 months of our co-habitation. Terrible! She was really a little strange, toooooo quiet to be trusted, 3 years younger than me (a bigger difference in your early twenties than late), did not like to go out or drink, but DID like to have loud sorority friends over on weeknights (I'm a soro girl myself, so I'm all for it-- but keep that stuff to yourselves! No one wants to come home to 8 girls chillin in all black in her living room where she was planning on studying that night...). Anyway, I could go on and on. I had to sublet the last 3 months of my lease, so surprise to her, she got a rando (who I found on craiglist, of course), and I didn't give her any notice. Ha!
Summer 2012: I got placed in Northern Virginia for my final 3-month clinical fieldwork assignment, so I had to go down that house-searching road yet again! With no time to go to VA to meet roomies or see places, I had to put my trust in the world wide web again. After panicking multiple times and nearly having my identify thefted (lesson learned... credit checks are NOT a necessity for many good rentals! be skeptical- consider yourself warned!), I found a girl who used as many exclamation points and smilies in her emails as me, had a fashion blog, and loved to run. Perfect. In a similar fashion as two years prior, I showed up at the house on a Saturday night with my car loaded up. We had two other roommates-- two other 20-something guys-- and we all had a BLAST of a summer! I made some of the best friends in that short period-- went to Vegas with one back in October, went up to VA to visit them in February too, and hopefully will be back in May!
Fall 2012: I moved to Charlotte, of course. Now THIS time, I had an abundance of time and free living arrangements (a GOOD college friend I knew in Ohio lives here now with her fiance, and I stayed with them about 3 weeks, paying rent in doing dishes and getting groceries). I went on four potential-roommate dates with people (from Craiglist, surprise) and toured 4 very different living situations, finally settling on an adorable house outside the city, with an easy work commute and a ton of closet space (and super cheap rent), with a 20-something guy. After 5 months of shared cooking, giant projection screen movies, several shared TV favorites and a good buddy to grab a beer or dinner with on a whim, he decided he needed to move to Chicago and sell the house. LAME. This brings us to....
Spring 2013: After being given a 1-month notice I had to find a new place to live, I made a frantic dash for Craigslist yet again and searched and searched and searched! Knowing the city here a little better, I had an idea for what parts of town I wanted to be in, what rent costs would be like and, of course, what exactly I was looking for in a roommate! I still haven't met very many people my age here, so that was definitely on the list, as well as a great location that would be encouraging of fun places to go out to eat, good trails to run, have a dog (maybe), and still get to work easily enough. Everything fell into place this time around! I met several different girls for happy hours or dinners, but eventually decided on the first girl I met (and the feeling was mutual)- same age as me, career-driven, travels a lot (meaning I am living alone about 50% of the time, score!), loves Marshalls and TJ Maxx as much as me, and single and ready to mingle- with all my good friends being either engaged females or dudes, she is SO what I need! She was moving from about 1.5 hour away, so that made the house-searching a little tricky. Luckily, I jumped on a Saturday showing of an adorable townhome rental close to uptown, in our price range and square-footage/closet space range, on a weekend when future-roomie was able to come into town. We immediately fell in love! And probably more important was the fact that we readily AGREED on how much we liked it. That's half the battle! I looked at 3 other places without her around that weekend, but it was the day after that showing that we called the guy and said "we'll take it!" I moved in March 15, and absolutely LOVE the new house. And the new roomie? Fantastic!! Last night we took down Marshall's and then explored the upscale sushi place 3 blocks from the house. Home sweet home! :)
Thanks Craiglist!
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