Every year, incoming Brunonians are matched with a random roommate based on a short questionnaire from the Office of Residential Life. While some of these relationships are short-lived, others flourish into lasting friendships.
The Herald spoke to four pairs of seniors who were matched as first-year roommates and formed bonds that have lasted throughout their time at Brown.
Showing ‘tough love’: Molly Ibrahim ’27 and Kamya Raman ’27
Many incoming students first connect with their roommates on Instagram, though this line of communication can be tenuous. Molly Ibrahim ’27 and Kamya Raman ’27 both recalled stalking each other on Instagram before they met.
“I ghosted her,” Ibrahim said.
“Several times, actually,” Raman added.
Ibrahim said that while stalking her future roommate’s Instagram, she stumbled across prom pictures, which featured Raman hitting some “funny poses.”
“I could tell she’s funny,” Ibrahim said.
They went on to spend most of orientation week in their room together “being dramatic,” and joking about transferring to another school together, Raman said, though she said they soon found their place at Brown.
While the duo was initially “really nice” to one another, they now describe their dynamic as being full of “banter” and “tough love,” Raman said. “I don’t think we are that nice to each other anymore,” she added.
During their first year, Raman would sometimes put sticky note reminders for Ibrahim on their wall. One message read, “Do not lose sleep over a man,” with each letter occupying a different sticky note to cover the whole wall.
Now in their senior year, Raman and Ibrahim are neighbors off campus. Ibrahim said Raman’s roommates have “adopted” her — they even added her as an honorary member of Raman’s house group chat.
Leading the ‘Stravarmy’: Leo Nachamie ’27 and Elliot Stravato ’27
When Leo Nachamie ’27 and Elliot Stravato ’27 met in person, they clicked instantly.
“I thought Leo was super confident,” Stravato said. “One of his best qualities is that he’s really friendly and outgoing to new people, so I immediately felt really comfortable.”
The pair agreed that it was easy to adjust to living together, noting their similar tastes in dorm decor and living styles. Stravato took most of the lead on decorating their room, which Nachamie appreciated.
“I was really happy with how (Stravato) decorated it. It felt like my room, but I didn’t have to put in the work of decorating it,” Nachamie said.
Nachamie and Stravato have since elected to live together for each of their four years at Brown.
During their sophomore year, the two had their first fight over their Perkins dorm room. Stravato explained that he had a “really cute pair of little scissors” that he thought would look “so cute” hanging from the ceiling. Nachamie opposed his vision.
Nachamie said he then “ghostwrote a Sidechat post” from Stravato’s perspective, reading “‘F— my life! My stupid roommate won’t let me hang up these scissors from the ceiling.’”
“The downvotes were in the negatives,” said Stravato.
The trolling didn’t stop there. Last summer, Nachamie made a fake Instagram fan account called @estravatohq, which consisted of at least 20 clandestinely taken candids of Stravato. According to Nachamie, followers of this account were named “Stravatians” or the “Stravarmy.”
It took about two months for the account to pop up on Stravato’s Instagram feed, and he said it was “pretty evident” who the perpetrator was. “There was a video of me in bed rubbing my feet together while sleeping,” Stravato said. The video was posted during a trip only the two of them were on.
Nachamie added that he lost the login to the account and can no longer delete it.
On the potential of the relationship post-grad, Stravato said, “I feel like our kids will be friends.”
Traveling the world together: Annie Antonietti ’27 and Maya Varma-Wilson ’27
When Annie Antonietti ’27 and Maya Varma-Wilson ’27 found each other’s Instagram accounts after being matched by ResLife, they quickly formed opinions about each other.
Antonietti’s first impression of her roommate was her Instagram profile picture, which was one of Varma-Wilson’s baby photos. “That could go either way,” she remembered thinking. “She could be really cool and really normal, or maybe a little weird. Thankfully, it’s the first one.”
Once they met in person, they “just got on the same wavelength really quickly,” Antonietti said.
During debrief sessions, Antonietti said that the two always have the “same takes,” as they both hold similar beliefs and values. “I think that translates to respecting each other in the way that we want to be respected,” she added.
But the pair didn’t develop their connection immediately — it was only during their sophomore year that they “both got weird,” said Varma-Wilson, claiming that they have a lot of the same peculiarities, and they both take inside jokes “pretty far.”
The two took ten trips together during their junior year, having both studied abroad in Barcelona.
“For traveling, I would just say — and the same with living with someone — you normally have to make a lot of compromises and stuff, but I feel like we just don’t have to because we just want to do the same things,” said Antonietti.
“We just clicked so well that I don’t see any way that we wouldn’t have been friends. It might’ve just taken longer,” she added. “My childhood best friend has met her and she’s like, ‘It’s actually ridiculous that you guys somehow got paired together.’”
Looking toward their future, Varma-Wilson has already planned for Antonietti to be one of her bridesmaids.
“She’ll be my maid of honor — we’ve already talked about it,” Varma-Wilson said.
‘Oh, you’re Gianna from Lila and Gianna’: Gianna Rocchio ’27 and Lila Rosen ’27
Gianna Rocchio ’27 and Lila Rosen ’27 first met under the stressful conditions of move-in.
“If there was ever a breaking point, it would have been move-in,” Rosen said. Between the heat and the scattered belongings in their “teeny tiny” New Pembroke dorm room, Rosen said she was almost “hyperventilating.”
But after surviving the chaos of move-in day, the two knew their friendship would last — the pair has never really considered living apart.
“I just assumed that we would live together next year,” said Rosen.
Rocchio said it was “scary” that people she knew were choosing to break up with their roommate pairings. “I would hate for that to happen,” she added.
“I don’t even remember how we brought it up,” Rosen said. “It might have just been that one of us was just like, we should fill out housing soon,” she added.
Some of their friends consider Rocchio and Rosen as a single unit. “People are like, ‘Oh, you’re Gianna from Lila and Gianna,’” Rocchio said. “But also we are our own two people.”
Now in their senior year, Rocchio and Rosen live in the same house. But with separate rooms, the two have had to go through a period of adjustment.
“Sometimes I go to bed, and I’m like, my room is so empty,” added Rosen. “There’s no one even here. It’s so quiet.”
“Thank you, ResLife,” Rocchio said. “Not sure how they pulled this off.”
