Dear hall,

Thank you for adopting me into your home away from home, even when I was at my lowest. You accepted me with open arms, smiling faces, and encouraging words, never failing to introduce yourselves and ask if I needed help. I left a negative environment full of anger, tension, and hate, with the hope that my new hall would be even a little better than where I used to be. You can imagine my surprise when I found myself living among a united group where everyone loved one another and acted like a family. From the beginning, you treated me like one of your own, as if I had been a part of your hall from the start.

You will never understand how much it meant to me when we stayed up until the middle of the night watching romantic comedies, or when we would dance to old Hilary Duff and Miley Cyrus songs in our rooms. I loved sharing my past and listening to yours, knowing that each conversation was bringing us even closer together. Your smallest acts of kindness would bring joy to my entire day, and your happiness has been contagious.

Having a roommate with whom I can binge watch Netflix, go on adventures around town, and have conversations about anything from class to boys to absolutely nothing is magical, and I cannot verbalize the happiness that our Christmas light-filled and vanilla-scented room brings me. It is often the times when we are doing nothing that the best memories are made, and I am beyond thankful that we have both had a second chance at happiness with a roommate.

Although I have only been a part of your hall family for just over a month, I know that I have found my best friends for life. You all have been so welcoming that I feel like I have known you for years, and I can only imagine the adventures that we come this semester. I cannot thank you enough for transforming my first semester at college from one of stress and toxicity to hope and friendship. Through good times and bad, we stick together, and that is what makes us a true family.

Thank you for making this past month one of the best; you are all incredible people with whom I share an inseparable bond.

XOXO

With love,

The newest member of your hall family