Finding the right college roommate is a stressful part of the first year transition out of high school, and often is a pivotal part in your overall experience during freshman year. As you're going through the process, you always seem to hear about all the “bad roommate" horror stories and just hope for the best that you can somehow be the one lucky person that ends up being best friends with your roommate. After a year in college it's obvious most people don't end up being best friends with their first roommate, because it's rare when you have to live in a box with a complete stranger. I'm not sure how it happened, but I am blessed to say that I was one of the lucky ones.

I still remember going through the process around this time last year, franticly trying to find my first roommate. Using the Facebook page designed for students in the incoming class almost felt like I was dating online because I was meeting so many people trying to find “the one" all through social media. Through all the awkward instant messages and random strangers who friend requested me, it was a relief when I met someone I finally clicked with. After talking for some time, she asked me to be her roommate (it felt almost like a proposal.) When we decided to room together, it was a strange mix of excitement and nerves realizing that I was going to be living and interacting every day with a person I had never actually met.

Throughout the summer we kept talking and planned our dorm room with practically everything matching. I was beyond excited because I always dreamed of my college dorm room coming right off of a Pinterest board. However, as excited as I was, I had no idea what to actually expect when I moved in with this somewhat stranger who just happened to have the same name as me.

Move in day finally came. We both just happened to pull into the parking lot at the same time, and as soon as we actually met each other in person, we had one of those cliché “I met you on social media and now I kind of know you but not really" interactions. This continued for the first day or so as we didn't really know how to interact with each other without seeming like the situation wasn't awkward.

It turns out we were both nervous about living with each other for the first few weeks because initially we didn't think we had much in common, and didn't really think we would get along, let alone become best friends. However, somehow after we got to know each other as the weeks past on, we realized we were completely wrong with our first impressions. 

We quickly became very close very fast with our late night conversations, random dinner dates, and all the goat videos we watched after midnight. Through talking about any topic that came up, gossiping about both our boyfriends struggling to distinguish them by “Mat" and “Matthew" (yes, our boyfriends have the same name), and telling each other all the pointless parts of our day, I realized that our relationship had blossomed into a wonderful friendship.

Throughout the year, we have surely had our moments where we get annoyed with each other; with all our sass, directness, and sometimes nagging, but those moments never broke our friendship, they just made it stronger.

Looking back at all the memories we have made this year, and all the deep conversations we have had, I have realized that in the last seven months we haven't just become close friends, we have become more like sisters. We have fun together, feel comfortable around each other, and even when we get annoyed, we still care about and help each other out when we can. Just like family is always there for each other, I know I can always count on you as a member of my family away from my family.

Jessica Wimberley, thank you for being my roommate, my friend, and my sister this year. Thank you for teaching me compassion, patience, and lending a listening ear when I need to rant. Thank you for putting up with my messes (and cleaning my closet for me) and not complaining when I come home from work at two in the morning. I couldn't have done freshman year without you, and I wouldn't have wanted to do it with anyone else.