I was so nervous to come to school. I had never been away from home for longer than a week by myself, so the thought of leaving for months at a time was daunting. I was going to be away from my family, the friends I’ve had for years, and the home I’ve lived in for my entire life. To top it all off, I had to share a room with someone that I had never met before. That was something that I was not looking forward to at all.

On move in day in August, you walked into the room and looked about as nervous as I felt. We didn’t know much more about each other than our names and majors. We were both timid and hardly spoke while we were moving all of our bags into our new room. We quickly learned that this shared space was going to be a tight squeeze. I was not looking to all of the awkward silences that I was sure were going to happen over the next few weeks.

And at first, it definitely was awkward. We were on different schedules and I was nervous that I was going to wake you up every morning when I was trying to get ready. I tried to rush through my homework so I wouldn’t keep you up later than you needed to. I wanted to be as accommodating as possible, because I didn’t want you to hate me.

The first few weekends came, and we started talking to other people in our hall. Eventually, we couldn’t get people to leave our room at night, which resulted in our RA not liking us very much. We went to football games together and we invited each other out at night. Without either of us really realizing, we started getting closer.

We started eating all of our meals together, taking naps at the same time, and staying up until 3 a.m. doing homework together. We left each other notes of encouragement when we knew it was needed. We found ourselves venting about classes and crying over boys together. We became each other's life lines.

I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but over the course of the first few months, you became my best friend. I knew I could go to you for advice at any time and you'd give me your honest opinion, no matter how harsh. Nothing was off limits between us, and it was amazing to me that I felt so comfortable in such a short amount of time. Now, I can't imagine going through this journey without you by my side.

In just one semester, we've created so many memories that I will treasure forever. From our afternoon naps to sleepless Saturday nights, our friendship continues to grow deeper than I ever imagined it could. I am so lucky that you chose to message me on Facebook on that day all the way back in May. If not, I would never have met my best friend. We have three and a half more years of memories to make at college, and I can't wait to make them with you.

We may have entered this dorm room as strangers, but we're leaving as sisters. Much love, always.