Sose Hovannisian | Class of 2028, opt in for a roommate!

I remember the feeling well — being so utterly excited yet so visibly nervous. Your body rushing with all kinds of anxieties, beaming at the thought of embarking on your Ivy League experience and feeling the pit in your stomach as you realize you’ll soon be calling a shoebox in Philadelphia home. And that adrenaline rush only spikes further when you realize how many decisions you still have to make before your physical journey to campus begins. One of those initial steps is, of course, housing. 

First-year students at Penn (along with sophomores) are required to live on campus. In the past few semesters, different construction projects have shifted the typical choices newly admitted Quakers have to choose from upon their acceptance. It is unfortunate that so many students will be stripped of the infamous Quad experience, yet it’s evident that similar experiences can be recreated in the other college houses. Whatever building you live in, it’s what — or rather, who — is inside that really matters.

Penn’s first-year college houses are known for fostering a sense of community, whether that’s across your hall or among all the students in the establishment. Your residential advisors will ensure that you meet and mingle with people on your floor, introducing you to students from all walks of life. But one of the easiest ways to really find a community is by simply looking inside your own room. In my experience, the greatest community I found as a first year was in my roommate, who is now my best friend. 

Before arriving at Penn, I was not as openminded as I am now. Being here has instilled in me the important quality of impartiality and a willingness to try new things. But when I was still a callow and naive high school senior, the idea of moving so far away from home only left me seeking familiarity. I was insistent on finding a roommate very much like me, unquestionably from California, too, along with being of a similar ethnic background. Of course my demands were limiting and inane, yet I remained intransigent for a while longer. Weeks of scrolling through admitted students’ Instagram pages and Facebook profiles left me hopeless, as it felt as though everyone had already found a roommate, and my world was crashing down because I waited too long. 

For a while, I considered the benefits of a single room. I would be able to have my own space, never worry about getting along with someone I didn’t know, and live a very comfortable first-year experience. And while all these pros definitely could’ve made my first year at Penn more seamless at the beginning, I am ever so glad that I chose the uncomfortable option. 

I reached out to an admitted student named Nina in May of my senior year. Nothing about her resembled the image of the perfect roommate I had crafted in my head before, and for that, I am most grateful. Nina was from London. Her ethnic background consisted of Norwegian, Japanese, and British roots, and she was good at math — none of our interests or characteristics were lining up. Yet, somehow, through back and forth conversations on Instagram, we felt comfortable enough to agree to live with each other for our entire first year.  

Without ever meeting up beforehand, we met for the first time in Philly, in the almost midway point between our hometowns, Los Angeles and London, and the rest was history. From the day we moved in, we clicked perfectly and treated every single day as another amazing opportunity in our journey together. Nina could not have been more different from me, and every day, we displayed our differences and embraced them all. 

We shared stories of our lives back home and created memories of the one we were living together. Living with someone is a privilege: one I never knew I needed and would benefit so much from. By living with someone from such a different life than your own, you learn a lot that you never would have otherwise, and a lot about yourself, too. Living with Nina has taught me so many things about her diverse cultural background, ranging from holiday traditions to at-home remedies for all different types of problems. And of course, this was a two-way street. I felt so honored to be able to teach Nina all about my Armenian heritage, educate her about my people’s pressing issues of today, and introduce her to the luxury that is Armenian cuisine. We learned from and enriched one another, and those lessons cannot be found in a classroom. 

Being able to learn from the people you live with is an incredible privilege and opportunity. Now, as a sophomore, I still live with Nina in our high-rise housing. We also live with our other best friend, Maya, who also hails from a faraway place and represents her own cultures beautifully. Her Lebanese and Syrian heritage and Dubai roots add to the multicultural landscape we’ve built in our apartment and have added so much to the life lessons we share with one another. The three of us regularly indulge in our cultures’ fine cuisines and delicacies, often coming home excited to share something we found on campus that resembles the food we have at home. Living with them has been the best part of my Penn experience. 

Of course, I have to acknowledge how lucky I am to have met someone as amazing as Nina before arriving at Penn and someone like Maya shortly after moving in. Not everyone will love their first-year roommate, and many may find their relationship with their roommate to be one of the negative aspects of their Penn experience. But I strongly believe that whether your first-year roommate turns out to be your best friend, or the person you awkwardly pretend not to notice on Locust Walk every day, the experience will be worth it. 

To stress this even more, ask any one of my friends who have had the “horrible roommate experience,” and you’ll see that they just laugh about it now that it has passed. Your roommate will give you character, even thicken your skin — just give it a try. And who knows, you may end up as lucky as I did by finding your own Nina and Maya. 

SOSE HOVANNISIAN is a College sophomore majoring in communications and minoring in history and consumer psychology from Los Angeles, Calif. Her email is sosehova@sas.upenn.edu.