First, I’d like to say I can’t believe that my year living with my roommate in our shoebox of a room has come to an end.
My roommate Abby and I met each other 6 months before our freshman year started through the Ohio State Facebook group. When we began chatting, the thought never crossed my mind that I could be chatting with my future best friend. We decided to live together after talking for weeks, and it was the best decision we’ve ever made. She’s from the same major city as me, but a different suburb. I didn’t know who she was and I didn’t get the chance to meet her until move in day.
If anyone knows what “first day of school anxiety” feels like, think of that times 100, and that’s how I felt walking into my dorm room on move in day. I didn’t know my roommate. What if she turned out to be crazy? What if she was super weird? Or worst of all, what if she didn’t like me?
The first thing I saw when I entered the room, was her side of the room set up nice and neatly. I thought to myself that her stuff seemed pretty normal, so she probably would be too. Then, I saw a drawer full of about 20 cups of applesauce. I didn’t judge her hardcore, but I totally judged the applesauce situation a little bit. (Sorry Abby.)
As soon as Abby and I met, and my parents left, we instantly clicked. I’ve never become as close with a person so quickly as I did with her. We became best friends right away.
From then on, we were basically inseparable. It was always Jamie and Abby or Abby and Jamie or Jabby.
We hadn’t been best friends for years, so there was nothing we knew about each other that could annoy us. We didn’t know much about each other, so we couldn’t really judge each other. Because of these two facts, we were able to get along easily.
You would think that when you’re basically sharing air with someone, you would get on each others nerves once in a while, but that never really happened with us. We had different sleep and wake schedules, different class schedules, and most importantly, different Netflix schedules. Even though our schedules were entirely different, we ate dinner together 4 out of the 7 days of the week, and we hung out on the weekends.
I never thought that I would meet a new best friend the first day of freshman year, but let me tell you, I’m so thankful that I did.
My advice to incoming freshman is to take the leap that I took and room with a complete stranger. You won’t have to deal with the drama or the past. You’ll get the fresh start you’ve always wanted. And, you may make a best friend and have the time of your life with her in the process.
P.S. Thank you Abby for the best year of my life!
