The housing selection process has officially begun, which can mean total chaos for some.

The process is broken down into two decisions: roommates and living. The process can swing one of two ways, for some they will just leave their decision up to fate.

This means that their roommates will be chosen randomly for them. However, the most frequent scenario is students having a group or a friend they would like to live with, but may be stuck in limbo.

Most housing on campus has specific group sizes that need to be met to be permitted to live in.

Ryan Hall is a four-person dormitory, and Lewis, Briggs and Duval range anywhere from 2-4. When deciding which dorm to live in, students must weigh their financial limits and preferences.

There are certain minuscule details that people also analyze, like if they would like a newer dorm like Ryan Hall, but they

want a full kitchen that they can find in apartments.

I believe the hardest decision of all is choosing roommates. I personally have a group of friends who all became awfully close this year.

We each wanted to live with each other, but unfortunately asagroupofsixwewereinan inconvenient situation. It is not an easy task to have to separate as friends and risk living with people you may not know.

As a group we decided we wanted to live in Ryan Hall. Ryan is unique because it gives priority to sophomores like us before any upper classmen. However, that was the easy decision, the real trouble began when we had to decide how to split up as a group of six.

For anyone in the same situation, unfortunately there is no effortless way to go about the process besides being honest with your friends.

At first, we attempted finding a time to officially sit down and discuss our options, which was a challenge especially as we all sat in silence with no clear decision made.

We all enjoyed being together, but we needed a fair way to narrow down who exactly it was going to be.

We eventually decided it would be best to do a room of four and a room of two. Then,

we agreed that whoever was in the room of two could have the better room and we could find teammates to fill the other two spots.

As time began to tick, we decided there needed to be a mediator because no matter how much you say not to take anything personal, we did not want to risk upsetting anyone. Therefore, we all anonymously texted our friend who was the meditator the three people we would prefer to live with.

Then to lighten the mood, we all stood in a line holding hands like we were on a reality TV show. Our mediator suddenly became the host of our dramatic episode of who rooms with who.

One by one our names were called out based on how many votes we had received. By the end, we determined the four who would live together and the two we were going to be neighbors with.

Even with the stress we were all very relieved to be done with the process.

It certainly is not an easy task to decide your roommates and location.

The process may seem frustrating, but with maturity and communication it can be less difficult.