Will she like me? Will I like her? What if we have nothing in common? Okay, one semester and then I can change rooms if she doesn’t like me. I had all of these thoughts heading to Sioux City Iowa, in 2014. It was the start to my first year in college, and the first time I would ever have to share a room with someone, and not just anyone a complete stranger who I was sure was not going to like me.

From day one, I knew I was wrong. I had never met someone who I hit it off with from the first moment I met them. We had so much in common, we talked about our families and our lives since we lived in two completely different places. I came from Iowa and she came from California. I knew from day one that God wanted us to be roommates, we both helped each other through so much from; home sickness, to being sick, being each others therapists, and to just talking about boy and our futures. We were acting as if we were in kindergarten again and we didn’t have to act a certain way we were just our selves. “Do you remember in kindergarten, how you’d meet a kid, and know nothing about them, then 10 seconds later you’d be playing like you were best friends, because you didn’t have to be anyone but yourself?” – High School Musical.

It has now been three years, we were not roommates our sophomore year but we lived next to each other, we each wanted to try something new. Her situation turned out mine did not and I soon moved again (Defiantly not soon enough). We talked and hung out still it was a great time, she was there for me when it felt like I had no one else to turn too, she was the one person at school that it seemed could always read my emotions. She always knew when something was wrong, when I was happy and when I was sad and she would listen for hours, until four or five in the morning trying to take my mind off of things, but never leaving until she knew I was alright. I thank God everyday for giving me a friend like you. A friend that I know I will have for the rest of my life, and a friend that saved my life. “When it hurts so much you can’t breathe; that’s when you know you’re still alive” –Greys Anatomy

I just want to say thank you. For being my friend when you did not need to. Always telling me things straight up no matter if it would hurt my feelings or not you were always truthful and a true friend. I want to say thank you for giving me memories I will always remember and smile and probably even cry about in the future, but overall thank you for being you, and being the amazing person that you are. One more year, and these four years you spend in Iowa will be over, you will be a nurse (an amazing nurse), start a family and you can look back on these times and just say you made it. I hope you always know how special you are, and how proud I am of you and that I get to call you my friend. So when you leave Iowa for that final time remember to kick some butt, and as Cristina Yang from Greys Anatomy says “Have some fire. Be unstoppable. Be a force of nature. Be better than anyone here, and don’t give a damn what anyone thinks. There are no teams here, no buddies. You’re on your own. Be on your own.”