The Piano Knows Something I Don't Know

What qualities are best in a person?

What qualities are best in a person?

Shortly after I decided to attend Kale, I found that I had been placed into a Facebook group called "Kale University Freshman Boys Roommate Search 2017." I immediately opened up the page for the group and scrolled through the posts.

As I looked through everything that had been posted on the page, I saw that the page was exclusive to boys who were attending Kale in the fall and looking for roommates, as implied by the name of the group. There seemed to be an endless number of people looking for roommates, and scrolling through all of them nearly gave me a headache.

The first post on the page was from a boy named Joe Trohman, which I accidentally misread as Joe Trohham when I first read it.

Hello everyone! My name is Joe, and I can't wait to attend Kale University in the fall. I'm passionate about Star Wars, my guitar, and theoretical physics. I'm planning to live in Flack Hall, and although I realize that most people say that it's the worst dorm, it can't be that bad. It's right next to the science building! Would anyone like to be my roommate?

There were two replies to that post.

Eduardo Gonzales: Don't live in Flack. My sister lived there last year, and she said that it sucked. It's so far away from everything, and the Greek Friendship Society will keep you up all night.

Joe Trohman: Disregard this post. I already found a roommate.

I kept scrolling and found another post that looked interesting.

Hey guys! My name is Andy Hurley, and I'm planning to double major in ecology and political science here at Kale University. I'm a proud straightedge, and I love Crossfit. Let me know if you'd like to be my roommate!

Andy looked like a cool guy, and I was contemplating sending him a private message to see if he wanted to be my roommate until I saw that someone else had already replied.

Joe Trohman: I'd love to be your roommate, Andy!

Andy Hurley: Cool. Do you have a preference as to which residence hall we should live in?

Joe Trohman: I kind of wanted to live in Flack.

Andy: I'm fine with that. Let's submit our housing requests.

I scrolled through more posts, but it looked like most of the people who had posted had already found roommates. By this point, I was starting to question what I was really looking for in a roommate. Did I want my roommate to care about me and my problems? Did I want someone who would be honest with me? Did I want someone who I could have a long intense conversation about what was right and wrong with? I wasn't quite sure.

There had to be something else that could make someone a perfect roommate. There were plenty of people, especially at Kale, who were kind, trustworthy, and intelligent, but that didn't necessarily make them great roommates. Besides, most of those people already had roommates. I knew that there must be some sort of secret ingredient that I hadn't seen yet in anyone.

Then again, I wasn't the best person to talk about this. I had never shared a room before in my life, and as an only child, I had lived with only my mother for most of my life. Living in the same room as someone else at Kale would be a new experience for me, and perhaps I wasn't the right person to say what would make a person a perfect roommate.

As I was considering what I was looking for, another person posted on the Facebook page.

Hi everyone! I'm Patrick Stump, and I'm so excited to start school here in the fall! Here are a few facts about me: