Listen….my previous roommate (as of September of this year) and I had been roommates for 7 years! Crazy, right?! Well, she got married, and so ya know, she had to move out. I was filled with all types of emotions – I was excited for her since we’d been praying about marriage for all 7 of those years (socially-distantly slap your neighbor and say “The year of completion!”). I was also really sad because we’d become more like family and it felt like my sister was leaving me…don’t tell her I said that. Lol.
First I prayed. Then me being me, I told everybody that I was looking for a roommate. I even told they mama, and they sister, they auntie, and they baby’s daddy’s cousin. Back in April, I made a fun, short video of what type of person I was looking for, what I’m like, and what the rent would be. I sent it to about a dozen or more friends. *Crickets* So, I prayed some more. I told them to let me know if they knew of somebody looking for a roommate. Mind you, I didn’t want to room with someone I knew because I didn’t want to spoil an existing relationship if things didn’t work out. #realtalk
Months went by and I had no leads. I’d asked my prayer group to pray. One of the ladies asked, “How did you find your last roommate?” I told her that I’d found all of my roommates in Ohio by using Craigslist. (More on that later…) The ladies in the group thought that was strange, but encouraged me to try Craigslist again. I was like, “Ummm…it’s been 7 years since I had to do this so Imma need y’all to pray for that ‘Craigslist anointing’!” I mean the Lord God Himself (!!!) kept me safe in finding roommates all of those times (I’d had 4 other roommates before I found that one that I was with for 7 years).
So I set up a listing on Craigslist. Yes, chile, I did. And then, I prayed some more. Of course I received spam. Of course I received messages from people who clearlyyyyy didn’t read the post which stated “NO PETS” and “FEMALES ONLY”. I even responded to other people’s ads on Craigslist and found 1 person that I really liked. We even met in person (outside of course…there’s a pandemic out there folks…) at a coffee shop.
I asked her 21 questions that I found online because ya know, I hadn’t been in the game for a minute so I needed some help! It was especially important to be prepared to ask pandemic-related questions because if you gone be at the bar all the time and not taking social distancing seriously then you ain’t the one! If you in your place burning incense…then you ain’t the one! If your last roommate wanted to part ways because you were a sloppy…then you ain’t the one! Ok, you get my drift. I felt like a recent divorcee with 2 kids trying to get back in the dating game. #forreal
Then, I set up a profile on an app called “Roomi”. There weren’t very many people in my city looking for roommates so I didn’t know if that was gonna work. I reached out to about 5 people on the app and none of those people responded! I was like, “C’mon y’all! Are you looking or not?!”
Then I saw something during a Google search about running Facebook ads to find a roommate. Ohhhh yes my dramatic self DID run Facebook ads! I had multiple videos and gave Facebook my credit card information so that they could run the equivalent of a country-hood-infomercial “selling” the idea of how cool I was as a roommate. #yep
Andddd I prayed more and posted in Facebook roommate groups. Another girl responded and we did a video call. I reallly liked her! However, I wasn’t quite sure about her. I asked her the same 21 questions.
I told both girl #1 and girl #2 that I would give them a call by the end of the week and let them know. I dreadeddddd making the calls because I had decided to decline both of them. I didn’t want them to feel rejected! However, I knew I had to decline. So, I picked up the phone and called them. I didn’t want to send a text because that felt like a cop out. I wanted to do this respectfully. They were of course sad about it but they had no choice but to accept my decision. Mind you…I didn’t have another option or interview lined up. I prayed more.
Then, out of the absolute blue, I ended up getting a message from a girl on the Roomi app! She had recently set up a profile and I hadn’t seen her listed on there. We did a video call and I asked her the same 21 questions…and I prayed some more. And ya know what, I felt really settled about choosing her as a roommate.
Here’s a link to a YouTube video I did about this topic!
I followed up with her and she said yes! Here’s a toast to a fun roommate-ship!