Going into college with next to no knowledge of the campus and zero friends is a scary concept in itself. But choosing to room with someone that you don’t know is even scarier. They could be messy, rude, a sleep talker or worse.

Despite all of the horror stories of college freshmen rooming with crazy roomies with weird closet obsessions, it doesn’t always have to end up in 2 A.M. late night texts to your best friend about the latest disturbing event the roommate has performed.

Having a roommate is, in a way, like forcing a friendship. You could choose to have surface level conversations and only offer to share the snacks from your mom’s latest care package because you feel obligated, but that only works for the first week, if you even make it that long. Then, once you start complaining about the heat and how no one can reach the top shelves is really getting to you, the barriers crumble to the floor. The next thing you two know, you’re telling stories about your middle school days, laughing on the floor at midnight and sharing the snacks in the care packages because you realize they’re also suffering from the same dining hall food you are.

By the time the end of the year rolls around and you’ve had the privilege of seeing some of their best and more of their worst moments, you’ll realize that random girl or guy that was stressing you out weeks before you arrived on campus has become one of your best friends. Now, don’t get me wrong, you’ll end up saying “I hate you” more often than not, but it’ll be in between the laughter and eye rolls.

So thank you to the random roomie turned dear friend. I can’t imagine living without you, and I’m beyond thankful I had you to laugh and cry with, although the crying was only a side effect of laughing too hard. Embarking upon a journey that many call the best four years of your life is intimidating and a lot of pressure to uphold the high expectations. But I’m so happy that I had you next to me on this roller coaster of our freshman year. So here’s to many more years of laughing, crying and sitting up in our beds until 3 A.M. talking about nothing and everything all at the same time. I couldn’t have asked for a better random person to walk into my dorm room last fall.