To My College Best Friends,

All of high school, I wanted to depart the tiny bubble of my hometown and branch out. I wanted to escape going to a school where half of my high school went, and I wanted to be free of the constraints that attending a school so close to my home would bring. But as I stepped foot on campus for the first time, hundreds of miles away from my best friends – who are scattered across the nation so haphazardly it’s as though we were trying to get away from each other -- I was absolutely terrified. What if I never found that close knit group again? What if I came to college to find myself, only to do so alone?

But here we are, at the close of first semester, and I could not have gotten luckier. You all stumbled into my life completely on accident, or perhaps totally on purpose, and without you, I would have never experienced my freshman year the same way.

Thank you for ordering pizza with me at two in the morning (multiple times a week), for staring at the Domino’s tracker and hitting refresh until our order is done.

Thank you for dragging me out of bed for my morning classes even when I really just want to sleep, because you know I need to go.

Thank you for also hitting the snooze button with me, because sometimes you know class is far less important than an extra hour or two.

Thank you for late nights in study rooms where no work gets done and we laugh until our chests ache while blasting the Hannah Montana albums.

Thank you for introducing me to the popular music that I somehow missed while living under a rock for 18 years.

Thank you for understanding that coffee is more important to my survival than water.

Thank you for the dance parties at 6 a.m. after we’ve pulled an all-nighter.

Thank you for forcing me to go out and learn how to have fun.

Thank you for also realizing that Netflix in our sweats is a much better alternative, sometimes.

Thank you for holding my hand and hugging me when I’m upset, for wiping the tears off my cheeks and telling me I’m going to be OK.

Thank you for just holding me, other times, because even though I’m going to be okay, it’s not going to be right now.

Thank you for never judging me, for embracing my awkwardness and making fun of me for it, but also for understanding that it’s simply a part of me.

But, most importantly: thank you for being you. For loving me, for being there for me, for learning the entire dance of We’re All In This Together with me in a study room instead of doing our homework. Thank you for making this university feel like a home, and for making this dorm room feel like so much more than a tiny space I inhabit.

I love my best friends from high school. I still talk to them every day, still know the minute details of their lives. But I found a whole new family here at school, too, and let me just say thank you.