As we approach yet another year on our path toward graduation, many of us will find ourselves in the familiar, albeit irritating, process of finding living quarters. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you end up falling rather easily into a place through a series of events completely devoid of any arduous search. But if you’re not one of those lucky few, you are faced with the annoying task of hunting for a place. And in this increasingly digital world, many of us will end up turning to the ever-useful community meeting place that is Craigslist to do so.
A quick look at a few of the open room postings on the “list” (as I so affectionately refer to it) and it’s clear that people have numerous expectations of potential tenants. Some are reasonable, some make you wonder about the poster’s lifestyle and some are just strange. Here are a few qualifications various posters have asked for in potential roommates, which I observed during my search this past month.
One poster said whoever rents the vacant room in their domicile must be “420 friendly” (actually a fairly common request on the list). Although I think the War on Drugs should be ended as much as the next guy, I’m not so sure that living with Method Man and Redman in an apartment that resembles the dorms found in “How High” is conducive to my studies.
Another poster wanted to be extremely clear about a particular request by including in the post’s heading “NO PRUDES ALLOWED!!!” That’s right, three exclamation points to be sure the message was properly conveyed. Although I certainly don’t consider myself a prude, I’m not at all keen to the idea of coming home on a Saturday night to a roommate hosting a “passion party.” God only knows what else this person does in his or her prude-less home.
Another poster, in attempting to explain the vibe of his or her place, said the tenants are “a little bit LDS.” I had a pretty fun time speculating which “bits” of their lives they considered Latter-day Saint and which parts they had decided were not. Perhaps they attended their Sunday meetings “a little bit” while continuing to throw weekly keggers. In any case, someone who’s clearly confused about his or her religious identity to the point of advertising it doesn’t sound like my ideal roommate.
I suppose my hesitancy to accept any of these qualifications makes me just as picky as these posters. Still, living arrangements can make or break a semester. So, if during the process of finding a room (should you so choose to utilize the “list”) certain bits of language lead you to believe one thing or another about a certain place (though it’s probably still worth it to check it out in person), trust your gut.
John Hannon