Ah yes, roommates. The folks whom you share your living space, your bathroom amenities, and plots to overtake the government with. More often than not, they’re strangers who you grow to care for…or hate….or feign cordialities with as you count down the days until you move into your single. Nonetheless, as freshman year winds to a close, I wanted to dedicate this to the three roommates who I lived with my very first year of college.

Starting off, three cheers for my literal roommate. I lived in Beaty Towers, a residence hall with apartment-style dorms that come with a bathroom, a kitchen, and two bedrooms for 4 people to share. The person I shared my actual room with was an acquaintance from high school whom I can reluctantly, and with great hesitation, call a good friend. Your obsession with potatoes, insistence on singing songs that you didn’t know the lyrics or even the right tone to and threats to beat me up whenever I used your bed to climb onto mine were endearing qualities I probably won’t have in my future apartment mates. Thank you for lending me your ear when I had about 10 or so existential crises within the school year, for putting up with my deeply ingrained passion for alien abduction, and for suffering through my ceaseless commentary when watching The Flash every Tuesday night. I’m glad I was able to live in close quarters with someone who was just as invested in bettering the country’s social/political future. I look forward to seeing you help change the world. Like you always, relentlessly say, it’s garbage can, not garbage cannot.

Next up, is the roommate who literally calls herself the “confetti that makes our lives more interesting.” She was the last-minute addition to our roommate contract and I thought she seemed normal…at first. I don’t think I’ll ever have another living mate who eats frosting out of the carton while simultaneously dancing to trap music with limbs flailing wildly enough to take out my eye. I enjoyed debating controversial topics with you (and winning of course), and I really valued your opinion on many of the things we yelled about; ranging from the Muslim Ban to the political apathy on campus to whether Dennis, the university’s resident crazy man, should really be wearing booty shorts with all these visiting families milling about. I will never actually say this aloud, but I really appreciated you consistently asking about whether I had eaten early in the year as I was getting my bearings. Understandably it’s become a bit of a gag between us now, but deep down, I’m sure there’s a shred of sincerity in your looking out for my wellbeing and for that, I thank you. You still owe me coffee though, and whether or not you deliver on that could change the tone of this section about you.

Last but not least, my wonderful final roommate who also happened to be the floor’s resident advisor. *Gasp* "Nushrat, you lived with the RA?? How did you manage to do anything fun???" Jokes on you, my dear anonymous asker, I am incapable of having fun so there’s that. But really, you, my final kindly roommate have been great to live with. I will forever hold you in the highest regard for correctly placing me in the fire nation when our floor’s theme was Avatar the Last Airbender in the beginning of the year. I will miss excitedly talking about Harry Potter and young adult fiction. Although I have to say, I was disappointed when you shot down my idea about casually adopting a dog and/or tarantula to keep as the floor pet, I have now moved past that (but seriously consider the tarantula at least, it would be super cool and leave virtually no mess).

I’ll be living off-campus next semester, where I won’t be suffering on mattresses that leave me more tired than refreshed on early mornings, climbing eight flights whenever the fire drill incapacitates the elevators or suffering through the screaming banshees that live in the room just next to ours. But, I also won’t have late night orders of Midnight Cookies to share with you three and I suppose that would be a loss. You guys have made freshmen year memorable and most importantly, you have made my dorm a home away from home.

So don’t be strangers…although, I think it’s too late for that anyways.