It's the best feeling in the world, knowing that after a long day of classes, you get to walk back into your dorm room and find your best friend lying on her bed watching Netflix (she's probably re-watching "One Tree Hill" or "Grey's Anatomy" for the millionth time), and that as soon as you walk in, she's going to hit pause and be willing to listen to you rant about how awful your day was. It's the perfect motivation to get through the piles of homework you were assigned, knowing that in a few hours your best friend will be walking through the door for a nightly rant session about her job, her classes or anything in general since it's been forever since you saw one another (meaning, it's been about three hours). It gives your tiny, foreign dorm room a sense of home. You don't feel so lost and alone when you're living with somebody who understands you the way family does. There are so many perks that come along with living with "your person."
1. You never have to preview a series on Netflix.
As soon as you saw that you're on the last season of the show you've been binge watching, she has a list of new series for you to obsess over. And since she knows you better than you know yourself at times, you're guaranteed to like whatever she suggests. Seriously, no matter how many times you've sworn that you'll never sit through "Grey's Anatomy," when she finally convinces you to try it, you'll get through eight seasons in about a month (I'm totally speaking from experience on that one and I have no shame).
2. There's always somebody to cheer you up when you've had a bad day.
Most of the time, they know that you're having a bad day before you've even realized it yourself. If you're like me and my roommate, then you know exactly what the other one needs to feel better, as well. When my roommate is been having a tough day, I write her a cutesy little note full of motivation and then surprise her with her favorite candy or an ice tea from Dunkin' Donuts when she gets out of work. When I'm having a bad day she gets us each a pint of ice cream and sits with me, ignoring our homework, listening to me complain about things that aren't even relevant to my life. And if we're both feeling down, then we put on something full of boys we can both drool over and eat all the junk food we can find, while making fun of everything around us.
3. Dunkin' Donuts runs are always an option.
You know it's real when you guys don't even have to say anything. You just know that it's a Dunkin' Donuts kind of day and you head out to the car. It becomes like a routine and you both have one another's orders memorized. You're there so much that you're pretty sure the employees only know the both of you when you're actually with one another. It's just natural for the two of you to go. And it's nice to always have somebody else walking into class in negative 30 degree weather, holding onto an iced coffee or ice tea as though it's totally normal.
4. You gain a second family.
When my roommate decides to take a trip home for the day, since she only lives an hour away, she lets me tag along with her. It's happened so often that I refer to her mom just as "mom" when I talk to her. I never feel awkward or uncomfortable when I'm with them and when they send her home leftovers, there's always enough to share with me. And when she's going home for a home cooked meal during the week, I'm always included. Not only am I living with a friend who has become like my sister, but I've gained a support system that's so much closer than my own family, who's four-and-a-half hours away from me while I'm at school.
5. There's always somebody to talk to at night.
I got home from my second semester at school and found it impossible to fall asleep. Because I had grown used to my nightly conversation with my roommate until one of us fell asleep. It was never anything important. Sometimes it was just a goofy conversation that consisted mostly of jokes that later became our inside jokes throughout the day. But, it was something and it became a part of my nightly routine. We talked all night long and it was what helped me fall asleep. It was like a reminder that there was somebody there for me, no matter what time of day it was.
6. Silence isn't a thing that happens very often.
Working on homework? Time for some "Sam Hunt." Munching on junk food? Netflix is a must-have. Trying to procrastinate homework? Get on Pinterest and start planning your dorm room for next semester. Lying in bed because you're stressed? Time to rant about everything on your mind. Long story short? There's never a moment of silence because you're always communicating or doing something together. You have the same taste in music and in TV shows, so one or the other is always on in the background. In fact, silence is so rare in your dorm room, you have to escape to the library (with the roommate) for a little bit of silence when you really have to get a large bulk of homework done.
7. FOMO is not a thing.
It's not unusual to get out of class and have a large stream of unread texts from your roommate about everything that happened while you were apart. I only had one class without my roommate and I walked into class as she got out of her class. When she got out of class, she always received a long message about how my morning went after she left and when I got out of class I got a message about how her class had gone and what had happened in the hour and 40 minutes since she got back to the room. While she was at work, I'd flood her inbox with everything that she missed and she tells me all about her day at work while she's on her breaks. You're constantly in communication with one another, so when you're apart, you still know what's going on. That way, you never have to miss out on anything.
8. You spend your summer anxiously waiting the day you move back in.
You aren't excited to go back to your classes. You're not excited for the food or to set up your dorm room all over again. All you're excited about is a constant sleepover with your best friend every single night. You're excited to have 24/7 communication with your best friend, face to face, rather than over the phone. That's the only thing that matters, because it's the only thing that helps you get through a day. You two are so close that you honestly feel like they're the only person who truly understands you, no matter how different your backgrounds may be.
9. You can use one another to set up your schedules.
This one's especially true when you're living with a best friend who also has the same major as you. My roommate and I tend to have almost identical classes. With the few differences we've had, though, we've been able to figure out what classes are worth taking to get requirements out of the way and what professors we want to continually take classes with. And we know exactly what we're getting ourselves into with a class.
10. There's always somebody to help you with your homework.
You can work together to figure out a question that seems a little tricky. You get two minds when you're planning out an essay and you always have somebody on hand to proofread for you. Motivation is never lost, because there's somebody there to pressure you into working your hardest. And everybody has an academic weakness and academic strengths. Your roommate's and your's are most likely going to balance one another's out, so that you're weaknesses can turn into strengths and you can help turn theirs into a strength as well.
11. You never have to show up to an event alone.
She's your permanent plus-one because everybody invites you somewhere and adds on "and bring your roommate." And when she gets invited somewhere, they tell her the same thing. Everybody knows you're a package deal, so they always make sure to include you both. Even when it's a school wide function, you two show up side by side. There's always somebody to sit with and there's always somebody to talk to. It's especially useful when it comes to trips to the dining hall because nobody likes to eat alone, no matter how common it is at college. You're blessed because you always have a dinner date and there's always somebody to grab a weekend breakfast with.
12. Your circle of friends becomes twice as large.
You've got the friends that you've made from where you lived before you guys moved in together and other classes or clubs you're involved in. She's got hers from classes, work, her former dorm, and everything she's involved with. But because you two are like two peas in a pod, she knows everybody you know and you know everybody she knows. Because you're friends have to accept your best-friend-roommate and she feels the same way. It would just be awkward if the people you're constantly with don't like the person you live with. Your friends are their friends and their friends are your friends. It's the best way to meet people, which is the hardest thing about moving away to school. But, with somebody like her by your side, it's a piece of cake
13. There's always an excuse for a movie marathon.
Whether it's a horror movie marathon, a "Harry Potter" marathon, a Disney marathon or a collaboration of all the different movies you missed while they were in theaters, you're always going to be ready to sit down and spend a day without classes watching movies with delicious snacks that are totally unhealthy. Maybe you'll get some homework done and maybe you won't. That's not important. What's important is that you have somebody who's willing to watch all eight "Harry Potter" movies with you even though you've both seen them at least ten times already. That's true friendship.
14. Every night is a sleepover.
Whether it's devouring pints of ice cream while having a heart to heart or munching on popcorn with m&m's while fan-girling over hot guys during a Netflix marathon, there's always something going on in your room every night. There's always some sort of noise that has you convinced you're going to get a noise complaint, but you don't care. You're laughing and you're having fun. Every night is roommate bonding night when you live with your best friend. Going away to school is just one long, endless slumber party and that's honestly the best part.
15. Every single quirk is known and understood.
When I walk into the dorm room blaring, "The b*itch is back," after spending a few hours apart, I know that she's going to look up from her laptop and roll her eyes at me before laughing at how ridiculous I look. When she walks into the room and sees that I surprised her with a post-work Dunkin' Donuts, she knows that that means I had iced coffee after 7 p.m. and I'm going to be annoying and crazy all night. When she's stressed out and chooses to continue to procrastinate as a way to deal, I laugh right along with her at everything that she says. And when she's having a bad day and doesn't want to let the world in, she knows that I'm going to come crawling into her bed and cuddle with her for a "slumber party." I'll sit there on my phone at the foot of her bed until she finally decides she's ready to talk. And she never acts like she hates it, because she appreciates the effort to make sure that she knows somebody cares.
16. Junk food is always in full stock.
You never know when one of you is going to have a bad day and need some chocolate, carbs or ice cream to cheer yourself up. And since you two always support one another, when you're sitting there stuffing your face with a bag of Cheese Puffs, she's downing a package of Swedish Fish. When she asks if you want ice cream before she leaves work, it means you each get your own pint of Ben & Jerry's and you'll be eating the whole thing in one night. Friends who binge together, stay together.
