On a brisk May day in 2017, I opened a "Your admissions decision is now available online," email for a third, nerve-wracking time.

As they say, "third time's the charm," and I finally heard the good news I had been waiting for the entirety of my senior year of high school.

With a last minute acceptance came the rush to figure my life out in a split second. Determining when I would take placement tests, when I would attend orientation and where I would be living were now at the forefront of my to-do list followed by finding a senior prom dress and planning a graduation party.

Housing assignments were due the night of prom, and on a coach bus to the venue, I made my rankings at random of my preferred dorm buildings, not knowing nearly enough information to make educated decisions. I also checked the box of "random roommate" after two failed attempts at finding someone that hadn't already picked a roommate on Facebook.

People warned me that I may end up in a not so ideal situation living in the same room as a drama queen, or even possibly a psychopath. I kept my hopes up, and they rose higher when assignments came out and I friended my new "roomie" on Facebook. She looked nice, she looked normal, and I was ready to meet her.

Move in day came with lots of excitement, and a bit of anxiousness. What if she made friends quicker than me, and I was an annoying tagalong? What if we disagreed on every possible topic of conversation? What if she didn't like me??? I was expecting some awkwardness at first, but what I wasn't expecting was to so quickly become best friends with my first roommate other than my sister.

If we had a dollar for every time we heard "Wait so you guys didn't know each other before college?" we'd have enough money to buy another minifridge (and we already had two)!

So thank you, to my random roommate, who joined me on all my random shenanigans. Thank you for watching Shrek 2 a socially unacceptable number of times. Thank you for never saying no to my requests for late night ice cream and for sometimes placing the requests. Thank you for listening to me unconditionally every time I needed to vent, or got a little homesick and wanted to chat.

Thank you for forcing me to the hospital when I popped my thumb out of its socket (even if I did try to walk out more than once) and for laughing at all my jokes. I am forever grateful that I had someone to tag team social events. My friends became your friends, and yours became mine.

Thank you for eating pie and watching football with me, and for not murdering me every time I couldn't find my keys (which was a few too many times). All the conversations across the room from our lofted beds about boys and our new class crushes will not be forgotten.

And thank you for still joining me for ice cream.

I expected a bit of uncertainty, a few arguments, and a little more coexistence than a close friendship. But I met someone so much like myself that it took no time at all for us to be completely comfortable being 100% weird with each other.

They say things happen for a reason, and had I been accepted early, like I intended to be when I applied, I may have found a roommate and not met all the "random," humans living on my floor who are now my family away from home.

Sure, not everyone is so lucky with letting chance decide who they'll have to share a shoebox with, but in my mind, you either win or you learn, and I won and learned a thing or two.

We may fit a lot of people's descriptions of "random," with our infinite inside jokes and ability to have a dance party just about anywhere, but I'm more than OK with that.