Dear Hillman/Hilly/Eternal Bae,

I still remember the first day I ever laid eyes on you. I was trudging along with my tour group in the cold, dreary Pittsburgh weather. I was a hangry, tired mess. We had just seen your neighbor, Cathy, and while she was pretty, I wasn’t really feeling the hype. She just wasn’t my type.

Then, I was introduced to you. Just like that, I felt my world change.

God, you were beautiful. A single ray of sunshine seemed to burst from the cloudy grey skies and land on you. I could hear the Heinz Chapel Choir singing. It was as if I was in heaven.

In that instant, I realized that I had found my new home: with you.

Ever since that fateful day over a year ago, our time together has been a whirlwind romance. We almost immediately started spending every waking moment together. At first, it was great. It was all so new, so exciting and so full of promise.

Then the first round of midterms came. And everything promptly went to sh*t.

The shit kept snowballing until finals week last semester (a.k.a hell week) when I finally decided to call the quits. In that time you decided to cater to your many other lovers, while I had some one night stands with Crazy Mocha, Starbucks, and Dunkin Donuts. I even did the unthinkable and shacked it up with Cathy.

Despite it all, I couldn’t stay away.

Because none of them were you.

Sure, maybe their bathrooms weren’t littered with used tampons and toilet paper. Maybe they don’t bear your familiar aroma of coffee, chipotle, stale farts, and (sexual) frustration.

Still, even with all your quirks, in this chaos that is called college course load you’ve become my only constant. My beacon of hope. My crutch.

You have witnessed me at my worst, and you still let me in (provided I swipe in when it’s past 11 p.m. Hey even booty calls need good security measures). You were by my side through all the Pitt plague episodes and stress-induced meltdowns. Even when I went crazy from my (caffeine) drinking problem and had two energy drinks and three large coffees and blamed you for my life falling apart, you still stayed.

Maybe because you have no way of moving since you are literally rooted to the ground. The hopeless romantic in me would like to think otherwise.

For I know somewhere deep down in that cold concrete heart of yours, you love me too.

Everyone around me thinks that I’m going crazy. They try to keep us apart by saying things like, “Nid you can’t spend all your time there. Don’t you have a social life? Also, maybe a shower would be nice too. If not for you, for us."

But even those few times I leave you to practice minimal proper hygiene, you can bet my dining dollars and crippling student loans that I will always come back to you.

I know our relationship isn’t something others really understand. I mean you are seeing about 18,757 other students. Yet even with all your other suitors, I can't be jealous. I know that at the end of the day we share a connection that no one else can claim. You are main bae. For better or for worse. In sickness and in health.

Love forever and always,

Nidhi