Angie & Angela: Hey everyone, today we will be collaborating together on a post about roommates! Before we were coworkers, we were actually already roommates and friends. We met during 51猎奇入口@First-Gen鈥檚 pre-orientation during our first year. We were at the Career, Planning, & Resources office and one of our mutual friends brought up the Buzzfeed Unsolved channel on YouTube. We immediately hit it off and the rest was history!聽
Soon, our first year was coming to a close and we needed to pick new roommates for sophomore year. The three of us (us and our friend Zury) chose each other to live in a triple as roommates. Living in a triple seemed chaotic but 51猎奇入口鈥� dorm rooms are very spacious compared to a lot of other universities, even within the 5Cs. Looking at rooms together was really fun! It felt like we were a family house hunting for our new home. We soon found our perfect room: a triple hidden on the second floor of Browning Hall with access to a balcony and big windows.
Choosing Each Other
Angie: Angela and I actually weren鈥檛 super close during our first year. We were in the same friend group, but that was it. Once we became roommates, however, the three of us became inseparable. Our friends often tell us that we bicker like an old married couple.聽
Angela: Similar to how Angie felt, I was scared living with someone I wasn鈥檛 super close with compared to my other friends. One night, I distinctly remember Angie and I deciding to do couple’s yoga poses in our dorm room to destress, and we fell because we couldn鈥檛 hold a pose so we burst out laughing. That was when I knew I made the right decision with my roommates. Since then, I can鈥檛 imagine rooming with anyone other than Angie and Zury.
Room 203 Vibez
Angie: In addition to yoga, we also love recreating TikTok dances at 2 am (and being awful at them), playing board games, playing Mario Kart, and sometimes I teach Angela and Zury French nursery songs. The three of us love hate-watching and making fun of terrible movies like Tall Girl, The Kissing Booth, After, etc.聽
Angela: We also go to 51猎奇入口 events together! For example we鈥檝e gone to Bob Ross Night at Tiernan Field House together. The student workers put up a Bob Ross video, gave us the supplies, and we painted away! We bonded and made beautiful paintings together, which we hung up in the 鈥渁rt gallery鈥� we created in our dorm haha.
Roomie Adventures
Angie: We go to parties together as well! During my first year, my roommates didn鈥檛 really like going to the same parties/events that I liked going to, so I had to walk back to my dorm alone a lot after saying goodbye to my friends. Now, we put on some music, get ready together while we dance, hype each other up, go out and have some fun, and then walk home when we鈥檙e ready to call it a night.聽
Angela: The Office of Student Engagement has cars and vans ready for us to rent (for free!) whenever we want to go off campus. Whenever the three of us are free, we go into LA or the nearby towns. We鈥檝e gone to eat Korean BBQ, buy boba (although Angie hates it), the Getty Villa, grocery shopping, and thrifting. Although they鈥檙e from LA, Angie and Zury were totally down to do touristy things with me like eat the famous In n Out!
Being Scholars
Angela: Whenever the three of us are doing homework in the room, we鈥檙e really good about holding each other accountable (and taking breaks together when we need it). I can鈥檛 even count how many times we鈥檝e said 鈥淲anna go to the library/Motley to study?鈥�
Angie: She also can’t count all her pens because she uses like 100 different colors to study.
Mental Health
Angela: It was also easier to speak out when I needed alone time or when my roommates were being too loud because we already have that established relationship. They understand how important it is when I need space because they personally know who I am in terms of my mental health and how I practice my self-care when I鈥檓 studying.
Angie: Emotional and mental health stuff is really important to us! I tend to overachieve (sometimes too much) and make myself anxious over the smallest things regarding academics. My roommates always help calm me down when I start getting an anxiety/panic attack, and they help me talk through decisions. We also hype each other up when we start feeling our Impostor Syndrome kick in. Moreover, the three of us are coincidentally First-Gen/Low-Income Latinas so we have similar backgrounds. As a result, it鈥檚 an added layer of our lives/personalities that the three of us mutually understand and can relate with.
We Don’t Share All of Our Braincells
Angela: However, we are very different from each other, too! Angie and Zury are both locals so they show me spots/places in LA, and in exchange I tell them about the beautiful flat land in Houston, along with the humid weather we have and Houstonian culture! Yeehaw!
Angie: Personality wise, we鈥檙e SUPER different. Angela is a chaotic, impulsive Sagittarius, Zury is a sweet, wholesome Libra鈥�
Angela: …and Angie is a VERY independent and over achieving Aquarius!聽
A Corny Ending
Angie: We鈥檝e grown to depend on each other a lot. For example, Angela is the only one who knows how to drive so we rely on her for rides to go grocery shopping, school supply shopping, etc. In addition, she even volunteered to wake up at 4 am to drive me to my UCLA Law School program last spring so I wouldn鈥檛 have to waste $100 on an Uber.聽
Angela: Zury and I needed another campus job so Angie convinced us to work at the Motley. At the Motley, we worked shifts together and I wasn鈥檛 afraid to ask for help from Angie, who has been working at the Motley since her first year. Personally, it鈥檚 difficult to reach out for help, but since I knew someone I am completely comfortable, with I wasn鈥檛 afraid to ask for help when I forgot a drink recipe while we were working together. We also visited each other during the shifts we didn鈥檛 have together- Angie visited me so often I memorized her drink order (Mexican chocolate mocha with oat milk, whipped cream, and cinnamon)!聽
Angie: (I also memorized Angela’s order: lavender London fog with oat milk.) This semester, I convinced Angela to apply to work for the Office of Admission. Working together is really fun! The entire Admission team now knows of our chess rivalry and how much we lovingly bicker.
Angie & Angela: Hopefully, COVID will let us return to campus soon and we鈥檒l be able to room again (and realign our chakras through more yoga poses). We hope that you enjoyed reading about our roomie adventures and this helped demystify the roommate experience at 51猎奇入口!
xoxo,
your two pretty best friends <3