Freshman year is finally over. You no longer have to be cramped into a dorm room with some stranger who may or may not have become your best or worst enemy. Your college can no longer force you to live on campus and follow all of its rules. You are able to move off campus to live in a house with some of your best friends. Or maybe, like me, you get thrown into a house with some of your sorority sisters because that's how it goes at a small campus without a sorority house. But who would have ever thought that these four girls would change my life so much?
1. First, thank you for understanding when I forgot to write that check or stress because of how much money I actually realized a house cost.
2. Our late night conversations about everything and nothing will never go unforgotten.
Especially when they are about the boy in our lives who decided to make everything overly complicated, but not knowing we existed or liking us back
3. There is absolutely no one else that I'd want to send extremely ugly Snapchats to because I know we have trust to not screenshot unless it's just too good to pass up.
4. I cannot give you enough thanks for constantly bringing me a long list of items I forgot at home.
Let's face it—we don't have our moms with us so someone has to take over the responsibility of my irresponsibility.
5. House dinners were a must when someone decided to have a craving for real food.
We actually have our own kitchen now, but it's not like we actually used it on a daily basis
6. It's not easy living in a haunted house, but at least we all can agree we hear weird noises.
We comforted each other while blaming something else for the sound. So, thanks for chillin' with the spirits and me, I guess?
7. For loving cats just as much as I do and be willing to have three in the house even though we aren't supposed to have animals.
I put my full trust in you to become an Olympic sprinter to get upstairs and hide all the evidence before the landlord made it into the door.
8. I always knew that I could count on you all to celebrate a good grade on anything, cheer me on through any nerves and pick me up when life knocked me flat on my butt.
9. Deciding to live more than a couple blocks off campus may not have been the smartest idea, but carpooling became an typical thing.
One-song jam sessions have turned into an art form for us.
10. I am forever grateful that I not only gained my own room when moving into our house but also two extra closets that I can go through to find the perfect outfit.
11. I have never been one to be spontaneous, but with you guys I've learned that planning isn't part of the plan.
Like that one time you decided it was cool to dye the cats green for St. Patty's Day so they could be in the spirit, too.
12. Netflix and chill gained a whole new meaning when it's you and your roommates laying in one of your beds while watching three movies in one day.
Then to top if off, when that roommate leaves, you decide to just take a nap in her bed
13. Group texts on the weekends are what I live for.
Deciphering all of your hidden codes to figure out if I need to come find you honestly hasn't gotten easier. But it's still just as fun as it was when it started
14. People may not find us funny, but at least we can laugh with or at each other
15. When questioning if an expired food is still good enough to eat, I can always count on your honest opinions of how it hasn't been that long and "Well, I'd definitely still eat it if that helps."
16. Wednesday is always trash night and it brings me true happiness to see the trash out and beside the curb when I get home from the library late.
It's really the little things that count.
17. Even though I get fussy when you wake me up in the middle of the night when you come home, I can't wait to hear the story the next morning
18. Knowing just by the water pressure that either the washer is going or someone else decided to hop in the shower while you were grabbing your jammies.
19. Having a war with the baseball house over the special house table topper and sneaking onto their roof when they were home to get it down without them even knowing.
20. Leaving the door open to pee is a must so we can still continue the conversation we were having before we sat down to do our thang.
21. Just sitting around the upstairs table creeping people on social media and then being five people deep.
But she is that one girls best friend's sister's boyfriend's cousin-in-law so you basically know her.
22. The most important reason I love y'all is because I found a place to fit in and a group that knows my disgusting living habits, but loves me anyway.
We are down to our last few nights together in this cold and super old house. As I think about it, I become lethargic and almost cry. I can say that I have found my safety net within both of your arms. When I think about not hearing either of you scream music, stomp up the stairs in the early hours, or barge into my room just to lay in my bed, it doesn't seem real. It only took us two weeks to adjust to living together, two seconds to become close friends and months to make memories that will last through the night even if we didn't. We are parting ways with only two of us sticking together this next year. I expect lots of visits and many more weekend nights with ridiculous pictures. College is about wild times and if the next two years here are anything like this year, I know I will again ball my eyes out as each roommate packs up to leave.
Fights will happen and arguments had, but the first people who you struggle to pay for a house with will help you grow in so many ways. I can already tell that because of you guys, I am leaving this house as a different person. Thank you for the memories and don't be a stranger.