About a year ago, during the late spring of my senior year of high school, I remember anticipating the arrival of an acceptance (or polite rejection) letter from the colleges I had applied to. Luckily, I was accepted into both the school and the program, which I believed to be my first choice. With the last month of school and my last finals of high school approaching, this letter was a relief. I couldn’t have been happier.

The next thing I remember is frantically filling out the roommate compatibility survey, hopeful that I would match with someone who was just like me: a person who was a bit shy, but humorous, yet serious when it came to school. As an only child, I have always had my own room, my own bathroom, and never had to share any of my belongings or worry about my leftover food being eaten while I was out of the house. If anything, the anticipation of living with another person, let alone someone whom I had never met before, kind of, to say the least, freaked me out.

Much to my dismay, my final summer living at home came to an end. This also meant no more queen-sized bed, no more personal bathroom and shower, no more walking around without any pants on for the next eight months of school. This meant not seeing my parents, my best friends or my boyfriend everyday. When the day came to leave, I was hysterical. I felt like the life I knew was ending and I had to start completely over.

I lived on campus my freshman year of college, and until "move in day," I had not personally met my roommate, even if she lived only a couple of hours away. The only things I knew about her were based on the small talk that came from the awkward first interaction through text messages and stalking her Instagram profile back to like "75 weeks ago." From what I learned through stalking her profiles, was that she was very blonde, obsessed with her dog, and looked way too happy for me. In all honesty, I was not looking forward to this whole roommate thing.

When it came to arriving on The Bluff for "move in day," I'm not sure I have ever seen a more uptight crowd of parents and young adults. All of us had similar expressions on our faces, one of which expressed the near parting from the roommates we had lived with for the previous eighteen years or more. Once the goodbyes came, and our parents left, us awkward young adults had no one to talk to besides each other. Although I resented this forced social interaction at the moment, I'm happy to say that led to me meeting some of my best friends.

Luckily, I was very wrong. In just eight short months, I can say that my roommate became one of my best friends. In a way, this Boston-Terrier loving, blonde strangers became my newfound sister. So, here we go: first impressions to how things turned around!

Three First Face-to-Face Impressions of My Roommate:

1. My mom told me you had the same bedding (or something like that) as I did, so I immediately didn’t like you.

I’ve always been used to having the only thing of everything and I was like oh my god. No. This is not happening.

2. I was right! This girl is obsessed with her dog! She brought it with her to move in!

3. All this girl does is sit there, stare at me, and smile.

Like why is she so happy all the time? Does she talk? I knew it! I'm not as happy as she is all the time. She's going to be way too much for me!

(Just) 10 Reasons Why I Came to Love my Roommate:

1. We can have deep conversations (such as contemplating the stupidity of boys).

2. She eats my vegetables for me during any meal of the day.

3. She puts up with my stupid questions/statements that I think are really smart.

4. She deals with my random rants when I come storming into our room after class.

5. She's there when I have mood swings or mental and/or emotional breakdowns.

6. She always checks in with me when it comes to school and encourages me to do my best.

7. Girls nights! She's always down to eat with me. Some nights we would just order pizza and watch stupid funny movies.

8. We're always laughing! The amount of ridiculous things and jokes made throughout the day are limitless.

9. Sending weird pictures back and forth on SnapChat (from across the room) is proof that you are past the "acquaintance" stage of friendship.

10. When random and crazy things happen and we're not together, we call each other and run back to the room to sit on the floor and contemplate everything.

So, thank you to the girl who I was forced to live with for eight months. Thank you for becoming both my best friend and newfound sister. Thank you for helping me survive my first year of college. I love you!