At any BBYO convention, one of the best experiences is getting to have the opportunity to make new friends, no matter the circumstance. Whether you talk to them for a minute in passing in an elevator, or the whole day during programming, getting to socialize with hundreds of new people is one of the most exciting and long lasting experiences of IC. I've found that one of the best instances of this is with randomized roommates. This year, when BBYO released the roommate form, people were shocked to see that there was only one roommate request slot. The prior year, we were able to input up to 3 others names, so when seeing this new change, many had mixed emotions. Some were excited that they would have the opportunity to meet new people, some were scared that they would have to share their space with at least two strangers. However, after talking with numerous people about their thoughts about the situation, I realized that it would probably be one of the best experiences of the convention. I realized that we would be able to learn about two completely new people, share a space with them, debrief with them, and all together create a personal bond different from anything else I would find outside of my room. 

After opening ceremonies at IC, my friend Stella and I, who have been rooming together for all the conventions we’ve ever been to with each other, went up to our room to meet the two people we would spend our next 4 days with- Rachel and Gracie. After only a few minutes of small talk, we instantly dove into talking about our BBYO experiences, life stories, and anything else we could possibly think of- nothing was off limits. We had only met these girls about 10 minutes prior, and we already knew more about each other than most other people we would meet at the convention. Being able to share our living space and our only place where we could have downtime with these two people we had never met had brought up the opportunity for incredible conversations, whether it be about debriefing about the past day, telling funny stories about our regions, discussions our past board experience, or even talking about our hopes for the future. Coordinating late night food deliveries with each other, running into each other in the hallways and screaming, and crying together were just the beginning of our story. I now had this incredibly strong bond with these two people I had never met, and for that, I am beyond grateful for randomized roommates, and encourage others to be as well.