With the first semester of my College Experience™ officially in the bag, I wanted to give a shout-out to my roommate. We share a drafty double in Cazenove Hall, but we've done more than enough to make it our home: tapestries (and a sloth plushie...and a clothesline...) hang from the ceiling, beds in an L-shape in the corner, our corkscrew shining from the top of our fridge, and posters of The Great Wave and Aux Buttes Chaumont are taped stubbornly above mirrors scribbled over in marker. Strings of Christmas lights and Chinese lanterns line the walls, and each night I fall asleep under fluorescent stars.

Thank you, Roommate, for helping me learn new things about myself, like how it's okay to slow down and that I don't really need to be an hour early for everything. Thank you for calling me beautiful and asking me if I'm okay - two things that are only annoying because they're hardly ever said.

Thanks for waking me up from nightmares, and not minding the whole talking-in-my-sleep thing I have going on. Apparently I'm a real asshole in my sleep, so we've developed a code word to determine whether or not the assholery counts.

Thanks for letting me step on your bed to hoist myself into my own, since we weren't able to lower the frame when I moved in. Thanks for sharing everything with me, from food to pillows to weird stickers. I know if I ever asked to borrow your clothes you probably would've let me, but you do have a thing about shoes. That's totally fine. Also they wouldn't ever fit me.

Thanks for being accepting of my sinful East Coast ways, and for trying to teach me Sweden's national anthem. Thanks for also trying to get me into League of Legends. It was a nice try.

I've only cried in front of one other person (not counting my mom) in my life. So thanks for holding me the one night I came home from running a photoshoot at a Yule Ball, only to start wailing. Just a few months ago, we were complete strangers. Being able to open up emotionally to someone I'm lucky enough to call my friend has meant the world to me.

So, on the holidays that'll close out probably the worst year of the past two decades, hold your Roommate close. It takes a lot to bring a stranger into your world without it ending in bloodshed. I got lucky with mine - And she doesn't even snore!