When I began the process of enrolling in college and thus began the process of finding someone to live with, I primarily got one piece of rooming advice from everyone I spoke with: “Just don’t live with your best friend.”

And if you’ve got college somewhere in your future, people will probably be telling you the same thing. People will promise you that you love someone a whole lot more until you have to live with them. They’ll explain that sharing everything with another human strains your friendship, and if you’re best friends already, you’ll lose that. You’ll lose the convenience of getting away from that person and you’ll lose the space away from that person that you may want or need. They’ll tell you that it’s hard and that everything will change.

And they are right, it will. And you will lose all of those things, along with some others.

You will lose sleep. You’ll be up laughing with her at 3 am and won’t want to stop, because rest will matter less than memories do.

You will lose a lot of silent study time. You’ll choose dance parties over your education some days because she will have found a new jam.

You will lose personal space. She will know you inside and out and love you still. You will know her, too; and be able to love her better than you ever could have before.

You will lose use of the word “alone”. You will not eat alone, complain alone, celebrate alone, or cry alone. She will be there to share in the best days of your life, and she’ll be there on your worst night when you can’t sleep.

You will probably lose some clothes. You’ll lose some food (especially if you leave Chipotle in the fridge). You’ll lose jewelry. You’ll lose nail clippers and Q-tips and you’ll lose time – lots of time – because you’ll waste it doing dumb stuff with her.

And you’ll be so glad you did.

When this whole college thing started, everyone gave me one piece of advice, “Just don’t room with your best friend.” But when I met my roommate several months before move-in, and she became my best friend, I decided I wasn’t going to listen.

And I did it. I roomed with my best friend. And I can confidently say that we laughed, cried, danced, argued, and grew more than I thought possible.

And this year, I'm doing it all again.