"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

To my college roommate,

As graduation approaches and real-life creeps up, we often find ourselves feeling sorrowful or fearful of what is to come. These emotions that we feel are occurring far too often. These emotions helped me write this letter.

I am hoping that this walk down memory lane will help us to see that growing up is OK.

As each of us graduated high school, we worried about finding a roommate that we would get along with. We found each other almost immediately, and it was as if we were destined to meet. As we sat in that booth at Panera and chatted about all of the random things in our lives that seemed so important, it was clear that we were going to be suitable roommates.

As we moved in and went about our freshman year, we laughed a lot, we cried a lot, we watched all of our favorite movies, we had concerts in our dorm room, we faced fears, we got our first college "F," we got our first college "A," and we even argued a bit; all of the things you're supposed to experience with your college roommate. But when it came time to chose housing for the next year, we went our separate ways.

When thinking back, I want to regret that decision. But I don't. We learned very quickly that living without each other in college was WAY to hard. So we continued to spend every day together. We learned a lot about each other that year, including how to go through a breakup, how to live with new people, and how to change majors. I like to think of that year as a "learning year."

Junior year was the year that taught us the most. We learned more about breakups, but quickly learned how to move on. We learned that sometimes, we make REALLY bad decisions, sometimes we choose the wrong people to prioritize, and sometimes we need to make mistakes for ourselves to learn a lesson.

You fell in love with the love of your life that year. I fell out of love with the person who I thought was my "forever." It was a year of mistakes for me, but it was a year of strength for you. I will always be proud of you for that year. But even when we were pulled in 100 different directions, somehow we managed to stick together in the end.

Here we are, senior year. The year we dreamed about when we took our first steps onto campus. The year we thought we would be ready to start our jobs and settle down. As we get closer to graduation, we are learning that senior year isn't all it's thought out to be. It's heartbreaking to think of a stage in our lives without each other. It's terrifying to think that we aren't 10 feet away from each other. It's scary to think that we might not get our "dream jobs." But senior year is more than that. It's a time to reflect on how lucky we are. We always brag about how rare it is to still be best friends with your freshman year roommate. Let's hold on to that.

As we plan for walking across the stage, getting diplomas, and landing our first "big girl" jobs, let's think about all of these memories. The ones that shaped us. The ones that taught us. The ones that strengthened us into the best friends that we are. As we get ready on the morning of graduation, it'll be easy to be sad. Instead, let's celebrate our successes as people, and as friends.

Thank you for the best 4 years of my life. Here's to making the next 4 even better.

I love you, Summer!

Love,

La