To my housemates:

First of all, thank you. You all are the absolute best people to live with in the entire world. Y'all are the reason that college can really feel like a home away from home. Thank you for loving me and supporting me and for doing stupid stuff with me. Thank you for all of the memories that we've managed to make in only a month. Can I just say again how awesome you are?

To be honest, I had concerns about living in a house with 7 other girls. I just kept thinking to myself "How is this going to work?" and "We're going to kill each other." I couldn't be further from the truth. Our little house is always so full of love and laughter. Most college students need to go out to have a good time or recover from a bad day. All I have to do is go home and sit in our living room. You guys will be there with hugs, jokes, memes, food, and anything else a girl might need.

I love getting to live with you guys because I love being able to do everything with you. At home, I had one sister. At college, I have seven more. I love coming home to a living room full of people putting off homework, a kitchen full of people cooking dinner, and a house full of the happy chaos of people simply enjoying life. It always makes me smile to hear you guys playing guitar in your rooms or singing in the shower. A pleasant afternoon for me is one spent on our couch, greeting each of you as you come in the door, prepared to make a bad day good and a good day even better if I possibly can. I'm always sad to think of what I must be missing out on when I have to be gone for the weekend.

So, though it's still early in the year, I'm fairly sure that my initial reaction of "We're going to kill each other" is going to be laughably wrong. While we may disagree some of the time, we're all way too close to stay mad for long. So here's to a lot more fun times! I'm pretty certain that this year is going to continue to be full of love and laughs. And for that, I'm so, so thankful.