Dear Roommate,

It’s funny to think that we only met less than a year ago, because I really can’t picture life at Corban without you. I keep flashing back to when we first met and couldn’t decide if we like each other, and wondering where we would be if we never found friendship through a mutual hate of writing yearbook articles.

Living with you this semester has been nothing short of a blessing. I’m not going to lie; I didn’t really know how we were going to coexist before the semester started. Not that I thought we were going to kill each other or end up archenemies, but we are different in a lot of ways.

You think sleeping in is staying in bed until 8 a.m., I think getting up early means having to roll out of bed any earlier than 9 a.m. You are one of the most organized people I have ever met and I can’t even figure out where I threw my shoes last night when I came back home. You only watch movies with a happy ending and I think some of the best movies are the ones that make you cry.

I know they say, “opposites attract,” but if that were completely true, we wouldn’t also have the saying, “Birds of a feather flock together.”

Looking back on how worried I was before the semester started, I can’t help but laugh at myself a little bit. Yes, we’re different, but we’re also really similar. We both think Crocs, Chacos and Birkenstocks are straight from the devil, we both think everyone in the world should be forced to watch the movie “Spotlight” and we know that terrorism could be ended if we just locked all the angry people in Disneyland for a day.

I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through this semester without you cheering me on, giving me positive reinforcement pretty much every second of the day, not laughing at me [too hard] when I say something dumb or letting me cry to you when life was too stressful. I am so thankful for everything this semester was and everything we experienced together. You have become one of my best friends in these last 11 months, and I don’t even want to think about you not being with me for the rest of the year.

But Washington, D.C. is calling you, and you have to go.

In six days you are going to pack up all of your things and say goodbye to our little home for the last time and I want to cry (and not just because I won’t be able to steal your clothes anymore).

Beyond that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, though, is an unbelievable amount of pride.

You are about to conquer the world.

I know that the road to D.C. hasn’t been all that easy, and there have been circumstances that have made you question your worth as a journalist, but you, my dear roommate, are a force of nature.

I don’t know if you realize this, but not many people can say they’ve chased their dreams to a state they’ve never been to before. You are fearless and on fire with passion for what you do. You are going to do more than I think you even know, and I could not be more excited.

Even though part of me wants to lock you in our room and never let you leave me, the other part of me, the proud part of me, can’t wait to see what you do.

So as you pack up all your things and say “See ya later” to our little school, I want you to remember that no matter where you end up, or how hard life gets, I will always be here with the perfect Disney quote to cheer you up.