Picking a roommate your freshman year of college is one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make. Although this sounds dramatic, at the end of the day, it’s the truth. Your freshman year roommate is the very first person you get to know at a school you’re unfamiliar with. Your freshman year roommate is the first person to pick up on all of your perfections and all of your flaws. Your freshman year roommate ultimately becomes your other half, as both of you share one side of a small dorm room. In some cases, you don’t get along with them, and you learn to just tolerate each other. But in the special cases, you and your freshman year roommate become inseparable; you become each other’s favorite person. I’m lucky enough to say I’m a part of those special cases. So, to my freshman year roommate, this one’s for you.

I never thought I’d be homesick while at school. As I packed my things up and talked to my family about starting a new life at college, I felt nothing but excitement and happiness. I couldn’t wait to get out of the town I lived in for 18 years and finally experience something new and different. Little did I know, I would spend my first few weeks at my university missing nothing more than the place I grew up in, and the people I spent that time growing up with. I missed my friends and my family so much that I could hardly eat or sleep without wanting to cry. It was a difficult time for me to open up with the people around me because I wanted to be left alone so I could talk to my friends and family back home and have them comfort me because they were the only people who knew how. But, I soon began to realize that the person I would live with for the next 10 months would be the best person to become comfortable with.

As my homesickness worsened, my roommate knew little things to do to try to ease my way into opening up to her. She would invite me wherever she was going, with whoever she was going with, and I soon began to accept her invitations. Day by day, I missed home a bit less and I enjoyed being at school a bit more. If it wasn’t for my roommate, I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through those first few weeks.

From then on, we became inseparable. We did every little thing possible together and we didn’t get sick of each other, not even for a split second. It’s amazing when you’re matched up with someone who is so similar to you. Sometimes people say people who are too much alike don’t end up mixing well together. Well, I’ve never disagreed with a statement more. My roommate and I are practically the same person and we got along better than some of my friendships that I had from back home – 18 years worth of friendships and my roommate and I became as close as that in a matter of months.

Living with someone for the first time is a weird adjustment at first. But once that adjustment is made, it’s a wild experience. You learn each other's habits, you find the craziest things to do together when you’re bored, you mess around with each other and play jokes – and all of these things make for memories you’ll never forget. After some time, you begin to rely on each other. You can’t go somewhere or do something without them because it just doesn’t feel right. Vacations home become agonizing because you feel weird sleeping alone in a bed that doesn’t have your new best friend next to you. This person becomes your first year of college life partner.

And if you’re lucky enough to be around that same person for the rest of college, you’re lucky enough. Keeping a close relationship with your freshman year roommate even after freshman year is so important because that’ll become someone you’ll always remember and never forget. Freshman year of college is such a new experience – it’s the first time you’re on your own and don’t have someone telling you what to do and when to do it. You may forget the material you were taught, but you will never forget settling in to a new place with another person who was feeling just as scared and nervous as you were.

So, to my freshman year roommate, I just want to say thanks. Never did I imagine that we would get to the point we are at now, but I’m so lucky that we did. On my best days, you were always there. And most importantly, on my worst days, you were there before anyone else. Thank you for giving me advice, supporting me, helping me with my schoolwork, and taking ugly pictures with me whenever I asked. At this point, I see you as so much more than just a roommate – I see you as family.

Here’s to many more years of laughs and good times together.