To the first college friend I ever made (and kept),

Making college friends is different than grade school friends; now we all carry with us our experiences and pasts, but back then we were like un-molded clay, personalities still to be formed. Entering college we are partially (if not yet fully) sculpted into real pieces of pottery. All we can do is hope that at least one person will like the curve of your handle or the way you fit in their hands. To the girl who is now my roommate, becoming friends with you was partially easy because you made me feel liked right away.

When we met for the first time, we knew of each other from social media but neither of us were committed to this school just yet; it didn't occur to me that you were a potential friend, because at that point, you were competition for a scholarship. We exchanged names and politely laughed at the mutual recognition (again, thanks to Instagram) that made meeting you in person feel like an eHarmony date. The other students around us were nice, too, and we all made sure to follow each other on social media "to stay in touch". Each of us would soon choose where to spend the next four years of our lives, so there was no telling if our paths would cross again or not. It's not that my intentions were not genuine, but rather that I was less preoccupied with potential peers than the school itself.

It turns out you and I would stay in better touch than I thought. After all, we were in a similar boat with a lot of options before us and faced the same ominous pressure. Our conversations grew friendlier as your voice became more familiar; I started to like you.

When we each announced our decision to come here, the agreement that we would be roommates was tacit. At that point I felt less like a member of eHarmony and more like a daughter of divorced parents who just gained a step-sister; you were suddenly mine now and I yours. We progressed though the rudimentary get-to-know you questions but slowly made our way into personal conversations. For awhile I felt like I was training you how to be my friend. I didn't know how to blend our new friendship with my preexisting ones, so the transition was bumpy; I'm sorry.

You've been so good to me and I am so lucky to have found you! We have come along way since we first met, and it's incredible to think that when I read your name for the first time almost seven months ago, the letters of your name were literally meaningless to me. I knew where you were from and the color of your hair, but that was it. Now your name triggers a multitude of words and feelings in my mind like roommate! friend! sweet! kind! lovely! clumsy! unique! Is there a more beautiful thing than watching a person unfold before you?

I am here to tell you that as we get involved in different clubs and organizations on campus, I will be so thankful to have you to come home to after a long day to share stories of all my new friends. Don't get jealous, please; know in your heart that you were the first friend I made (and have kept) in the era of my life that is college. I will get to tell my children about my freshman roommate years from now, and it will be your name that I cherish when I reminisce about those first few big moments: moving out from home and into college, first college party that we navigated nervously, first college paper that you helped me edit, first all-nighter that we endured together.

I love you and your cute dorm decorations, I love the way you laugh aggressively with your head all the way back. I admire your eccentric personality and I love to watch how you collapse onto our futon after your 3 hour biology lab on Tuesday afternoons. I never expected to love you as deeply as I do now. I think you're amazing and I am so lucky to have begun this journey with you on my side.

I must also formally thank you for understanding my pet peeves and letting me borrow your clothes, for making the shopping runs to Target for cleaning supplies, for helping me fan the smoke detector when our popcorn maker set it off. I want to thank you for many things in advance too: for helping me study for finals, for enjoying Saturday-morning coffee, for cuddles and hugs when I feel lonely, for making me laugh at late hours of the night when I should be reading my History books.

Thanks, my first friend, for enthusiastically admiring my art, for wanting to change when you see my outfit (imitation is the greatest form of flattery), for openly sharing your parents, and lastly, for making me feel at home. I thank you for the candids you take of me for Instagram and the looks you give me when I tell you that one "friend" is coming over to study. You have taught me how to be more of a girlfriend, the kind of girl that welcomes late night chats on my bed and signs of affection; in just a few weeks you have broken down walls that a decade of friendship with girls back home never could conquer. You are so so good for me.

Sometimes I hear you getting ready for you 8am from my room and I smile wistfully; I realize just two weeks ago I was living with my parents, in a house that watched me grow from Kindergarten to my senior year. Now I live with you and we get to set our own rules and budget money and take care of our home; we're adulting and 100% killing the game. We get to look out for each other and be each other's Mom and Dad and sister and brother: I promise to listen to stories of your long days, I will work with you to fix the cable connection (s/o to you for setting up our TV all by yourself), I will paint your nails gold for football games, I will find and strongly reprimand any boy that hurts you. We're family now. You're the first person I think of when I consider where this journey started, and while we may take separate paths, I know you'll still be there when it ends.

See you back at the room after class?

Love,

Lydia