Dear Roomie,

The nerves, the suspense, the worry- I remember the feelings of meeting you like it was yesterday. I stalked your Facebook, Instagram, and everything up that might have come up in a Google search about you to try to figure out who you were before I even met you. Creepy? Not at all, I was just nervous and wanted to make sure you were not insane. (And don't lie, you probably did the same hard-core stalking to me.) I had an image of you in my head and I was all excited to meet you on move-in day, hoping you would be the person I expected and more.

We introduced ourselves for the first time, and at that point I'm sure we would have never guessed that we would still be friends today. We slowly learned a lot about each other as the year went on as we talked about our families, friends, high school days, and so on. We learned what we had in common and what we did not fairly quickly, but luckily were able to work around those things to coexist as roommates.

Venturing out into life on our own together was not so easy in the beginning. Homesickness was real, and meeting decent people was a struggle. We stuck together through it all though. We grew and matured together, not necessarily because we wanted to, but because we had to. You have seen me at my worst, and even worse than my worst, but still managed to not push me out of a window in our entire time living together. I saw you at some rough days, too, and always tried so hard to be the best roommate to you as I could be. It was us against the world... and I have to say I think we handled our shit pretty well.

I think we can agree that not all times were great, though. We hit some rough patches, some disagreements, and some not-so-great experiences. But hey, that's life, and I could not imagine those days any other way. No one else I'm friends with now understands our adventures quite like we do, and that is a bond that no one will ever break. Because of all of rough patches, I am friends with you on a deeper level and I know I can go to you with anything since nothing I can tell you at this point will scare you. If we made it through what we went through we can damn well make it through anything.

So here's to the first day we spent together- sitting on our beds, wondering what to do next after our parents left. Here's to all the weird parties we went to and people we met. Here's to the times that we laughed together, and times that we cried together. Here's to the days we sat silently in the room because we spent every second together (before we branched out) and had absolutely nothing to talk about. Here's to the pizza we got at 2am on Friday nights. Here's to the day we moved out after that year was over- we might have been sad to leave each other but we both know we could not wait to get the hell out of there and get home. And, most importantly, here's to you still being one of my best friends to this very day.

Things may not have been perfect, but I'm so glad to have spent every imperfect moment with you on the other side of that small ass dorm room. Thanks for being my first roommate, and thanks for being you.

Love Always,

Your First Roomie

xoxoxo