Dear Roommate,

Thank you for putting up with me for a whole year. I am impressed. I can be very difficult to live with, but then again you can be, too. Aren’t we the perfect pair? As you may have realized I’m stressed out right now, but you are too, so I’m hoping that some good old fashion gratitude (and crying) will somehow be de-stressing! So without further introduction, here’s some things I need to thank you for, while I can still call you my roommate.

First, thanks for every time you offered to make me tea or coffee or popcorn or give me chocolate. You know the way to my heart is chocolate (I told you that today). You also know I eat it on a daily basis. But to go back to expressing gratitude, I want you to know that I love the fact that even when I don’t take you up on your offer, you still offer it because you know it always made me feel better to have someone care enough to offer to make something for me. Or give me chocolate.

Thanks for all the crazy late night conversations about life, superhero movies, "Once Upon A Time", "Gilmore Girls", feminism, how much I hate Donald Trump, chocolate… Even though both of us know that we should be sleeping, these nights were some of the best nights. I loved getting to know you (or rant to you) through these conversations that deprived us of our sleep. Without these fatigue-inducing nights our friendship would not have been nearly as well developed.

Thank you for reading all of my emails (well not all of my emails). I’m glad you never made fun of my lack of self-confidence when it comes to sending emails. I’m also glad you never told me, “No, I don’t want to read your emails again!” That would’ve been sad, but understandable.

Thank you for helping me try to understand French poetry, despite the fact you don’t speak a word of French. I really appreciated it while I was in the midst of that meltdown first semester. I’m not sure I actually thanked you for that, but honestly I would not have written a good essay without you, and I needed to do well on that essay.

Thank you for everything else you did for me this year, no matter how meaningless it may have seemed to you. Even if it was just asking me if your music was too loud. I really appreciated all of it. And I know all of these things seem small and insignificant, but, hey, these are the things that I will miss next year when we are no longer roommates. I’ll miss coming home home to find you sitting on your bed doing homework. It’ll be weird for me to have to text you if I want to hang out with you or drag you to dinner or lunch or rock climbing. It’ll be weird to not have a copy of your schedule up on my board so I know what’s going on in your life. I’ll no longer know when all your classes are! At least I will never again wake you up at 8 a.m. because I needed to make coffee to function as a human being (I always felt bad about that).

A year ago you were just that fable roommate I hoped would not move out after a month like my brother’s roommate did or put a dead squirrel in the middle of a satanical circle you drew on the floor like my brother’s friend’s roommate did. But, now you are this real person who for an entire year not only put up with all my shit, but actually cared about me and listened to me describe my day. So thank you for being you and always being there for me. I am so glad that I get to call you my first-year roommate. I’ll never have another. I hope you have a good summer and don’t worry too much because you will see me around next year (remember I know where your new room is).

Your Roommate

P.S. I’ll miss living with you. You were great.