"Close Match"

Finding a roommate is normally a random process. If you go to a school where you can request a specific person then power to ya, but part of college is to meet new people, and a roommate is a good place to start.

At my university, there's a roommate matching program that's pretty unique. It's called CHARMS (stands for something, I swear) and it's the official "roommate search/dating service". Humourous description for sure. How it works is that you first fill out a questionnaire about your living preferences like when you like to go to bed, what volume of music you listen to, whether you mind sharing items etc. and then you're given a list of all your top matches.

When I was given my list of top roommates (annonymous, everyone is just a number), I messaged my top match who I nicknamed uncreatively "Close Match". We got to talking and he seems to be a very nice guy. He says he's originally from Arizona and is an outdoorsy type of person despite not having gone backpacking in a few years. We share a lot in common - be both like the same music, have the same sleep patterns and seemingly similar personalities.

As we've talked more, I've learned more about him, he has siblings and was raised a devout Catholic. Today, when I checked my messages I found out he even attended a Jesuit high school and he says his Catholic upbringing has strongly influenced his beliefs. When I heard this I became slightly concerned. You see, there isn't a question on the questionnaire about sexual orientation. I was going to mention that I was gay in the "additional information" section of my profile but I don't want people to judge me based only on that detail from the start so I decided to leave that out.

For some time now, I've been feeling that I'd like to be roommates with Close Match but now that I've learned about his beliefs I felt that it was the right time ot let him know. I guess I came out to him in my last message where I explained that I wasn't the stereotypical gay guy and all that so he wouldn't get uncomfortable if he would in the first place. At the end of my message, I asked him if that would be a deal breaker and if we do become roommates in the end, whether he would respect that or not. He usually responds the next day so I'll end up hoping he responds before I leave for my camping trip tomorrow at 2. Otherwise, I'll have to wait until Saturday and I don't think I'll be able to bear the anticipation if I had to wait until then.

I hope my impression of him as a nice, fair guy holds up because I'd really like Close Match to be my roommate.

All the best,

JP