An Open Letter to My Roommate By Choice

Dear roommate by choice,

It has now been two months that we have been living together. And these two months have been some of the most wonderful of my college career. We’ve stayed up until all hours confessing our most deeply-held secrets, we’ve had late-night guitar jamming sessions to give our room a little ambiance, and we’ve laughed until we cried about the creative ways we find to work around our laziness (throwback to “the chip”). We’ve shared many a late-night snack (remember when we almost set off the fire alarm making popcorn?), we’ve watched movies on our homemade couch and played bananagrams until our fingers bled (I’ve still yet to beat you because you’re a scrabble word goddess). And these moments have been incredible, I wouldn’t trade them for the world. I’ve laughed, cried and hugged more with you than with any other friend in college. But the real reason I love living with you is because of the little glimpses into your character that only I get to see. Living with somebody allows you to let them in in a way that nothing else can, it sets the foundation for a stronger relationship (arguably) than any other friendship.

These moments that I get to see who you truly are, the parts of you that you don’t let the rest of the world see, are so special to me. You’ve let me in on (I think) some of your greatest insecurities, disclosed your most embarrassing moments (we both know what I’m talking about) and celebrated with me your greatest triumphs. I know all of your quirks like the back of my hand, below are some of my favorite:

1. How you laugh out loud when you watch tv alone. I’m a relatively silent tv-watcher myself so it caught me off guard the first time I heard you enter into a bout of side-splitting laughter at what must have been some silly joke from New Girl or Community. I always think to myself that it takes somebody who really loves life to laugh at tv until they give themselves a stitch.
2. Your guitar playing! Your guitar playing is literally music to my ears, it has even been known to relax me when I’ve been on the verge of a panic attack. I know you think it annoys other people but I can’t imagine anybody who wouldn’t enjoy getting serenaded on a nightly basis.
3. Reading your homework out loud. Even though I find this mildly annoying, I miss it when you don’t do it. Plus, I can thank you for the small amount of Italian I’ve picked up this semester!
4. Your excessive care about how you look. I find it adorable how many outfits you go through before walking out the door and how many comments you make about your hair (even though it’s gorgeous).
5. Your love of comedy. I’m consistently impressed by your breadth of knowledge about and devotion to something that is merely a hobby. Your passion for comedy reminds me just how much it’s possible to love something, and it reminds me to not take life so seriously!
6. You can win any argument. I know I remind you of this on a daily basis but please oh please become a lawyer so I can call you up when my kid gets in trouble with the law.
7. You admit when you’re wrong. With few exceptions you are consistently able to use your rationale and gracefully admit when you are wrong, a characteristic that is so rare in our society these days.
8. When you do stuff without asking. At this point it’s second nature to grab extra fries because I know you’ll be eating some off my plate.
9. When you randomly break out into song. This is one of my favorite things about you. If somebody says one word that’s potentially found in some Arctic Monkeys song you’ll burst out singing it. You also have a knack for matching situations and moods to song, something that I really admire in a person.

I feel so lucky to have found somebody who lives so similarly to me, nobody else would put up with my clutter and as you said once “we both sleep like we have mono.” Even though our tv taste differs (at least we’re still able to bond over Friends though), I couldn’t imagine finding a better match and I feel so incredibly lucky to have found such a compatible roommate.

With love,

Your roommate