Hey! I am that girl who comes to your room at 2:30 AM asking if you’ve finished your homework. The odds are, you probably haven’t, just like me. Our friendship started off in strange ways. Perhaps running into each other at the library or overhearing one another whisper snarky comments about a class we both hate. Either way, I wouldn’t trade our coffee dates and late night drives for anything. What’s funny is that we all came in with backstories. We all had some past that we either loved or hated, or hopefully a mix of both. Now, we bring those stories together over laughs and cries as we attempt to figure ourselves out.

Friends in college are often more like brothers and sisters. I mean, we live, poop, and eat together, so basically every boundary is broken. In high school, you could call someone you only see five hours a week a friend. In college, I lend you shower shoes to walk to the bathroom or have “family dinners” using storage containers as tables to support our microwaved baked potatoes. All of these actions bring us closer to finding out the important stuff: Is our Myers-Briggs personality types compatible? If so, we’ll be friends forever.

What’s crazy to think about is the fact that these people surrounding me at this very moment could be my child’s godparents or the maid-of-honor at my wedding. I mean, that’s what we ultimately seek, right? For now, I think I’ll just settle for the concerts we enjoy together. I am glad I’ve found my people who will comfortably dance away the problems with me and let me have the last piece of gum in their pack.

The future is crazy, but I want to spend it with you guys by my side. I want to have memories I can look back on and tell my children about while we drive home from school. We may regret the countless all-nighters pulled, but ultimately, I wouldn’t change our friendships for the world. Thank you for not judging me based on my past mistakes and still loving me when I am hysterically laughing at nothing. Here’s to forgetting about the bad, embracing the flaws, and loving it all. I am so thankful to have each and every one of you. You’ve made a place that was once nothing more than a scary thought feel like home.