Though the cabinets in the kitchen may not always have been filled with food, you were the best home away from home I could have ever hoped for.

As my freshman year of college is coming to an end, I have been reminiscing on all of the memories I have made and all of the people I have met in this new place that I have come to love with my whole heart and what popped into my head one morning as I woke up and looked around my bedroom that is about ten times smaller than my bedroom at home, laying in my bed that is definitely smaller than my bed at home, is that I would not trade living in this place for the past 9 months for anything in the world.

I remember my first night sleeping in my dorm and feeling so weird being on my own, but as a couple of days passed this place became what I got to be so comfortable with calling my "home". I always say everything happens for a reason, even the smallest of things. I firmly believe I was put in this amazing place to live for a reason. I met the people who are now some of my closest friends because I was placed in this dorm, I cried here, I laughed here, I got locked out of here, I said I couldn't wait to be out of here and move into a real house, but now I am realizing how big of a role this place played in making my freshman year of college so great and I can't believe I am having to let go.

So here's to you Southern Courtyard, thank you for not being built like a shoebox, thank you for giving me the best roommates, thank you for giving me loud neighbors who always keep me laughing, thank you for giving me all of the new, lifelong friends in good 'ole building one, thank you for being my safe haven and the best place to come home to after a long night, I even want to thank you for the impatient broom stick-ceiling tap happy downstairs neighbors (they hate us). Thank you for everything you provided me with and for always making me feel safe. There's no other place I would have rather lived this year.