My first year of college was marked by procrastination, sleepless nights and daily four-hour naps. Your first year is supposedly a time of change and new beginnings with little to a lot of pizza and TV dinners in between. However, your whole year can depend on one thing — your roommate.
Albeit, I am one of the lucky ones and would say that the relationship between my best friend and me is a special one. Cue the backstory!
Rachel (my roommate) and I have been best friends since our freshman year of high school. We bonded over a mutual friend in middle school and immediately became close. Although we had very different friend groups throughout our four years, we still remained chummy with frequent house visits and mall dates. Our relationship was pretty perfect — we were never together too much, but when we hadn’t seen each other for weeks, we acted like we were never apart. During our senior year of high school, we were supposed to go to separate colleges but decided to visit the University of Nevada, Reno on a whim. After our first day there, we fell in love with the school, and, well, here we are.
I have to admit, our first semester living in the same room and sharing a bathroom was a tough one. We were very passive aggressive with each other with the stupidest matters, like throwing out the trash, not organizing clutter, and cleaning the bathroom. One of our biggest fights was brought on by how much hair I would shed around the room (my hair at the time was long enough to reach my butt). My hair was also a bright shade of purple and the color would change every once in a while, so Rachel would always know that it was me. Even so, we always managed to talk it out like adults and fix the situation. Then life would go on and we would be best friends again.
I mean, I get it. If my roommate shed hair like this, I'd be pretty mad too.
Now here’s the deal.
She is and always will be one of the highlights of my freshman year, and I couldn’t have imagined rooming with anyone other than her. We are very comfortable with each other. It’s nice to know that when you wake up at 7:50 a.m. for your 8 a.m. class, you can change on the spot instead of having to run to the bathroom. There is also a lot of pizza. Like, a lot. We can simply send each other a "pizza?" text and boom, a large pizza and breadsticks will make the perfect dinner for when we lounge around in our pajamas watching Netflix and funny YouTube videos. Let me tell you, rooming with your best friend feels like you’re having that everyday "sleepover" you wished you could have as a child.
There are numerous memories Rachel and I have shared together in that room. Most are funny, some are sad and some are downright terrifying, like this story — Rachel and I live in a residence hall that used to be a motel. Our hall’s mascot is Norman the Gnome, and I hope you already know where I am going with this. Yes, we believe our room is haunted at times. Sometimes, our toilet would flush randomly throughout the night, our food and utensils would fall over for no reason and you can hear little noises, knocks and steps at night (This is according to Rachel, as I’m the heaviest sleeper known to mankind). Usually Rachel and I would laugh it off, but sometimes we would just end up watching Netflix (again) to suppress our fears.
Oh, Norman.
Like I said, your roommate is pretty important. You may think that there are so many problems that come with rooming with your high school best friend, but really it’s what you make of it. Even if your relationship with you and your roommate goes downhill, lighten up! Everything changes, and life gets better with every little smile, hug and appreciation notes (Trust me, leaving cute notes for your roommate will make their day).
I do not think I’ll ever regret rooming with Rachel; it has brought us closer and helped us see parts of each other (good and bad) that we would never have seen if we hadn’t lived together. It goes to show that best friends are the people in life that make you laugh a little louder, smile a little brighter and live a little better.
And who can dress like this with you.
