After moving out of your parents' house, you realize that the place you've called home for 18 years will never be your "turf" again. While that home will never escape your memory of cherished childhood years, you are forced to find somewhere new to live.
But sometimes, the people with whom you live become more important than the location or degree of luxury of your new space. It's true what they say: “A home is where the heart is.” Here are nine truths you'll know to be true if you live with your best friends.
1. So. Many. Clothes
Your closest is not just yours anymore. Your clothes become communal objects that everyone has a right to, simply because one wardrobe is not sufficient for a single person. But, on the other hand, that also means you have four other people's closets at your disposal. And, of course, everyone gets excited when their roommates go shopping because their purchases essentially add to your wardrobe, too--but for free.
2. The Toilet Paper Savior
Need I say more?
3. Emergency Food Source
You have’t gone to the grocery store in two weeks. All you have are canned black beans and cottage cheese that you're pretty sure is expired. Yet, your roommate recently made their mom’s four-cheese pasta dish that they "made too much of."
They insist you eat some. When you do have food and are feeling ambitious, you make muffins. But apparently you need two eggs, not just the last one of your dozen (would've been a good thing to check before leaving the store). But, wow! So convenient! Your roommate has an extra egg for you to use (as long as you share the muffins).
4. Your Left Hand
All those things you can't physically do by yourself? Done! From braiding your hair, painting the nails on your dominant hand to relying on your tall roommate to reach the glass off the top shelf, they are there. Your short roommates also come in handy when trying to retrieve your lost phone from behind the couch. It's not like you could fit in that tiny space!
5. The Mutual Appreciation for Silence
It is 10 p.m. on a Sunday night and textbooks, notebooks and coffee mugs are scattered across the living room table. Silence echoes around the house. You and your roommates sit in a daze of deadlines and regrets of not completing those assignments last week. As you remain glued to the same spot for five hours straight, you are comforted by the fact that you're all sleep-deprived and unmotivated--together.
6. Party Pals
If one goes out, everyone goes out. If one stays in, everyone stays in (mostly because you are all too hungover from that kegger the night before). Who else would be your party pals?
7. Ears to Vent To
You worked a double shift, the customers were uncommonly rude, you’re soaked from the rain that only lasted the duration of your walk home and your professor just emailed you that you have three extra reading assignments due tomorrow.
After kicking off your drenched shoes, throwing down your overweight backpack and crumpling onto the couch, you divulge every detail of your horrible day to your best friends, who have already set aside their work to attentively listen. Somehow, after seven minutes of vulgar language and sympathetic nods, they make you feel better.
8. Never Have to Eat Ice Cream Alone
To follow those terrible days are the nights spent watching cliché chick flicks and shamelessly eating an entire pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Crying from laughter, you relive the stories of blissful times and unconsciously forget about the stress and strains of the week.
9. They Are Home
In college, you move--a lot. From the dorms to an apartment to a house to another house, each year is a new and unfamiliar room. Yet, regardless of the lack of furniture, air conditioning, and fridge space, it still feels like home because the people that make you endlessly happy are there to fill the holes. They are the reason that the new key doesn’t feel so strange and unfamiliar. You know that, waiting on the other side of the door, are the people that can make anywhere feel like "home."
