Dear Tiffany Uke,

Freshman year was like a breath of fresh air. I came into it expecting the worst, but I left it extremely happy that I had come in the first place. You made living on campus enjoyable and you made my college experience start off and end so well. I can't thank you enough. I was new–of course I was because I was a freshman–and I had only known one person: my roommate at the time. Even knowing one another, we were still afraid to branch out and talk to different people. I’m pretty sure that most people were like that.

Move in day was the day when I met you. I was one of the few people who you had personally moved in and I figured out once I met that you were very outgoing. You were not shy to meet us and you were not shy to pull your personality out on us. I liked you immediately. You showed me the hallway and your decorations and then you showed me my room. I knew that you could tell that I was nervous because you then began to tell me that we would have a floor meeting the following day and that it would give us all a chance to meet one another.

The first-floor meeting that we had was awkward and we knew that you were nervous, so we were very attentive to everything that you had to say. During that floor meeting, you told us about you and then you told us that your door would always be open. It was, in fact, open all year long. After that floor meeting, you told us about all of the events on campus and you made us all do many group things together, which joined us together as a floor.

3^rd floor north was the floor that most people knew. People knew that we did almost everything together, whether it was eating together at our own table, competing in the chili competition together, or just laying around the lounge while watching movies every weekend. We cuddled together on the couch or on the floor and we spent each day laughing. If it was during the weekday, we all studied together. Our floor was inseparable.

I think that my favorite part was the fact that we spent a whole day in the lounge getting deeper into each other. We told one another our secrets and our fears. We cried and laughed together. You did that for us and you were our safe haven. That night was when I knew that we had grown as a floor and that you had fulfilled your duties as being not just an RA, but also our best friend.

Your birthday was when you truly realized how much you had impacted us. You had always told us about your fear of being an RA and not being liked, but I think that you finally realized that you were loved on your birthday. We had balloons outside your room and taped to your room door, we got everyone to sign a card, and many people brought you amazing birthday gifts. You cried while you looked at your room door (I still have the video) and you confessed that you didn’t even think that you had had that big of an impact on us, but you did and you still do.

To this day, we are best friends and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Everyone can tell that you are a ray of sunshine. As soon as you walk into a room, your positive energy builds us all up and makes us very happy. Your laugh is awesome and your advice is even more amazing. You have impacted my life and made my college years a success. I could not have asked for a better person to have as my RA. I’m blessed to have you and very blessed to know you. I love you so very much.