Two August's ago, I began one of the scariest and exciting journeys of my life thus far. I have moved quite a lot due to my family's involvement in the military. The one for college was just one of many. It was another change that I knew would come eventually. As any other incoming freshman, I worried about several things. What if I do not meet anyone? What if I fail my classes? What if my roommates hate me? It turns out that the last question would go the complete opposite of how I imagined.
For my first year at the University of Florida, I took residence in an apartment with three other roommates. With questionable skill, I did a bit of research on my future housemates. All of them were older than me and already acquainted with one another. Of course, I immediately wondered if I would be the odd one out who just hid in her room while the others bonded over inside jokes.
Then, I actually met one of them - Chrissy. As soon as I walked through the front door, her strawberry, blonde hair bounced into view and her bubbly personality greeted me. From there, she gave me a tour around Gainesville. A few days following, we ventured to the complex's pool. It was the next moment that I knew we had a great friendship ahead of us.
Laying our towels down, we reclined on our parallel chairs and reached for our bags. Almost synchronized, we both pulled out our individual copies of Pride and Prejudice. The Jane Austen novel is my favorite.
From there, many of our moments consisted of adventuring around town and bonding over popular culture. I accept her basic-ness and she accepts my alarming love for Harry Styles. For my birthday, Chrissy decorated the apartment with his pictures and played a clip of him singing "Happy Birthday." True friendship at its finest.
Chrissy quickly became my best friend. With her incredible ability to understand others and quick-mindedness, I do not think it could have gone any other way. I do not know when exactly it happened either. I think that it was all the little moments.
It was our random dance breaks around the apartment at midnight. It was when we would walk into each other's room to do homework in a comfortable silence or settle in and just talk about everything. It was all the times she wanted to do something "hoodrat." It was the times where we would laugh stupidly or cry hysterically, together.
I am confounded on how I ended up with such wonderful housemates. Nevertheless, I cannot be more thankful to have ended up with a roommate-turned-sister. Never would I have thought to be grateful for random, roommate matching.
