My roommate is too talkative.

My roommate is learning Chinese.

My roommate is so disgusting.

My American roommate was shocked by me.

These are Q tips stuck to my roommate with wig glue.

My roommate had a single story of Africa a single story of catastrophe.

What if my roommate knew about the heart procedure that was performed in the Lagos hospital last week?

What if my roommate knew about my wonderfully ambitious hair braider, who has just started her own business selling hair extensions?

Among the few to defend Carter was Amanda Knox, who was convicted of murdering her British roommate in Italy in 2007 before she was cleared two years ago.

What if my roommate knew about my Nigerian publisher, Mukta Bakaray, a remarkable man who left his job in a bank to follow his dream and start a publishing house?

'Not one month, one day,' his roommate Hilary Kibagendi Onsomu, who was cooking ugali, the spongy white cornmeal concoction that is the staple food in the country, cut into the conversation.

Now, what if my roommate knew about my friend Fumi Onda, a fearless woman who hosts a TV show in Lagos, and is determined to tell the stories that we prefer to forget?

What if my roommate knew about the female lawyer who recently went to court in Nigeria to challenge a ridiculous law that required women to get their husband's consent before renewing their passports?

What if my roommate knew about Nollywood, full of innovative people making films despite great technical odds, films so popular that they really are the best example of Nigerians consuming what they produce?

What if my roommate knew about contemporary Nigerian music, talented people singing in English and Pidgin, and Igbo and Yoruba and Ijo, mixing influences from Jay Z to Fela to Bob Marley to their grandfathers.

And so I began to realize that my American roommate must have throughout her life seen and heard different versions of this single story, as had a professor, who once told me that my novel was not authentically African.

And I took it with my roommate, Carrie, who was then a brilliant literary student and went on to be a brilliant literary scholar and my brother smart guy, but a water polo playing pre med, who was a sophomore.

But I'll just close what I've been talking about by leaving you with this message May you find an excuse to reach out to some long lost pal, or to that college roommate, or to some person you may have turned away from.

For example, Alice could fill in the blanks I will walk three extra miles if JuanTigar spends 30 minutes on the elliptical machine. Of course, people use imoveyou for other purposes everything from challenging a roommate to make his bed to encouraging a colleague to beat a sales record.