Thank you, freshmen year roommate:

I couldn’t imagine living with anyone else my freshmen year of college. Everyone tells you in high school that you shouldn’t room with someone you went to school with, or someone you’re friends with, but I disagree. If it wasn’t for my roommate freshmen year and her knowledge of me in high school, I would not have survived the long four days of orientation, the terrible 9 a.m. classes and whenever I was homesick and just wanted my mom.

I remember finding out in high school, at the end of January, that we were both going to the same college to both participate in athletics, and it was only a few days later that I received my acceptance letter and ideas about living together began to be discussed amongst our daily conversations. We were never best friends in high school; really, we weren’t even friends until the end. We were on the same track team for all of high school and only seemed to talk to each other during that time the first two years. Then something happened; we began to talk to one another and it lead to me meeting my best friend.

Rooming with someone you went to high school with could possibly be the best thing ever. They are the person that understands your life and the place you came from without having to explain to a whole new person about the little town you grew up in and the people you spent your entire life hanging out with.

They know your past.

They know the boys you crushed on, the boys you dated and the drama you have been through. They know who you were before coming to college and they are the person that knows your limits and allows you to be you while still letting you branch out.

They are your first friend.

They are there for you on your first night away from home, first day of school, first mental breakdown and they are there for you when you think changing your major for the ninth time is a good idea. I can’t even begin to tell you the amount of times me and my roommate decided at 10 p.m. that it was a good idea to order pizza or walk to Jack in the Box because we thought we were hungry and didn’t want to do homework.

No awkward meetings.

I think the most dreaded thing for any girl (or guy) is having to awkwardly meet your new roommate and get to know them. I had to do that at the beginning of my sophomore year and I had never been so thankful for my freshmen year roommate and not having to awkwardly meet her while moving all my stuff in. instead she helped me and we were already talking about the stuff we were texting about just hours before.

She is always there for you, even over break.

I think the worst thing is having to leave your roommate(s) for what is basically the entire month of December for Christmas break and you lose all the time and bonding you and your new roommate got to. Lucky for me, my roommate from high school lived less than a mile away from me at home and we still hung out all the time over Christmas break and we came back from break closer than ever (I really didn’t even think that was possible).

Best friends for life.

I could not imagine life if I had lived with a random my freshmen year. Who knows, maybe that random would have been my best friend but she also could have been the worst possible person for me to live with and that would have been the worst thing to happen to me, especially because of how hard it is for me to make friends. No matter what we went through whether it was us not talking to each other for two weeks or we could not focus being friend from high school allowed for us to know how to communicate with the other even in the worst of times. She was there when I was happy, sad, angry, sick and, most importantly, lonely.

She was there for so many firsts, and I couldn’t imagine sharing those experiences with anyone other than her. She motivated me to be my best and to be the best person ever. I don’t think I could have ever done even half the things I did my freshmen year if it wasn’t for my roommate and the relationship we had prior to college and living together.

From the nights we spent blasting music and dancing around, or the nights we spent lying in bed talking until 2 a.m. I couldn’t be more thankful for the girl who got me through freshmen year, and the girl I will forever remember.