I am sorry I was adamant at first about my hatred for you. I am sorry I thought you were too small and reminded me of a jail cell. I am sorry that after my first trip home I refused to go back and spend time in you again. Most of all, I am sorry for underestimating all you would provide to me.

For the longest time, parents and older friends would hate on dorm life, telling me roommate horror stories and other terrible mishappenings in the dorms. I rarely heard someone say, “Oh yes! You are absolutely going to love living in the dorm!” That may have gotten my hopes up, but it also would have been true. I feel as though people always hate on the dorms because it is the obvious thing to do, but I don’t agree. Living in a dorm brought me many, many great things that an apartment would not have.

Thank you for showing me to my best friends. You brought me not only friends from my floor, but from the entire building. I never would have thought that the people I lived with would bring me so much entertainment and joy. The gift of my best friends is one I will continue to enjoy for years and years to come.

Thank you for always being a safe place. When nowhere else on campus would give me solace and safety, my dorm was the closest thing I had to home. You became my second home. Here was where I could take a break from the day and read, sleep, watch TV or listen to music.

Thank you for also being a place to have fun. I cannot tell you the amount of laughs I had in my dorm room, my friends’ rooms or just the floor of the lounge. I had late movie nights and dance parties in here. I occasionally came home, after a long day, to a new “prank” or clear invasion of my privacy. There was rarely a boring moment while in the dorm.

Thank you for teaching me to be organized. Living in a 120 square foot area increased my ability to fit a lot of stuff into a small space. My roommate and I couldn’t live like pigs and still move around in the room because you were so small. Although I totally could have done with a little more room, the lack of it helped me stay organized.

Thank you for being close to everything. Since you were on campus, I could wake up 15 to 20 minutes before class and still be on time. I could take a quick nap in between classes or activities. I even changed my outfit a couple of times due to the weather because you were always right there. I didn’t need to drive or take the bus and spend my entire day in random campus buildings; I just went back to you.

Thank you for being so hard to leave. At the beginning of the year, I never imagined wanting to say in my freshman dorm forever. Yet you gave me so many amazing memories, that I want to stay here forever to make even more. You took my freshman year to the next level. Both terrible and great memories were made inside your four walls, and I would not trade that for the world. I miss you already and cannot wait to be back.