How I met my roommate via Free Intelligent Conversation

By Kyle Emile

On March 18, 2017, I was organizing a Free Intelligent Conversation (FreeIC) event at Dolores Park in San Francisco.

I had moved to the San Francisco 5 months earlier and was still trying to figure out how to make new friends.

My girlfriend had come to visit from out of town and participated in the event as a FreeIC Conversationalist. While sitting at the top of the park holding a FreeIC sign she met Marcus.

Ale [ah-Ley] (my lovely girlfriend 😍) and Marcus meet at FreeIC Outing!

Marcus had moved to San Francisco the month before. Though most people were friendly, he found it difficult to spark conversations that moved beyond normal pleasantries. Marcus stopped to talk because he figure that my girlfriend was having a similar issue and was using the sign as a way to facilitate engaging conversations.

She told him that her boyfriend (me) had been experiencing similar issues, and that we should meet. She introduced Marcus and I to each other at the park.

The rest is history.

Marcus and I started hanging out and doing all the things you’d expect from a pair of Bay Area transplants: visiting landmarks, eating burritos in the Mission, and hiking in Muir Woods—we even attended an NBA finals game.

Marcus had a friend get us last minute tickets to Game 1 of the 2017 NBA Finals. You can see one of us had a better time than the other...

As luck would have it, we were both looking for a new place to live so we decided we’d be roommates. After a few weeks of apartment hunting we landed on a spot that we both liked and moved in. And though we settled into the new place, we spent an embarrassing amount of time without getting furniture we obviously needed. 😅

Early January we didn’t have any furniture yet, so we decided to have our eating-pizza-on-the-floor-roommate-initiation moment.

Since moving in we’ve bought new furniture and our friendship has grown to a place neither of us could’ve predicted. Whether it’s impromptu photo contests to see who’s phone camera is better, or late night conversations about life — the good times have continued to roll.

I’m grateful to have met Marcus and consider him a brother.

And yes, since that day Marcus has joined several Free Intelligent Conversation outings as a FreeIC Conversationalist. One of the things I love most about FreeIC outings is that each conversation could be an opportunity to meet a new Marcus.

Pretty cool, huh? Shout out to #FreeIC. 🙏🏾