I heard about every phrase in the book...

"If you two room together, you will end up hating each other afterward!"

"Rooming together will ruin your friendship!"

"You'll never want to be around each other again!"

The list goes on and on, droning into an endless array of opinions forced down our throats as my best friend Gracie and I entered our freshman year of college.

If you are planning on rooming with your best friend from high school, you have probably heard similar things: horror stories about roommates gone wrong and the ending of 17-year-long friendships. I am here to tell you that these stories are a bunch of hoopla.

I cannot express how often Gracie and I had people say these exact things to us, but I will forever be grateful that we refused to listen to them. Having Gracie as my freshman year roommate was one of the best decisions I have ever made. When I had a rough day in class, or I was just tired or missing home, I would come back to our sweet little dorm and be able to relax and unwind and rant to my best friend.

We never fought.

We never got angry with each other.

All friendships are about give and take, and compromising and understanding, and we learned how to be patient with one another. We did, and continue to do almost everything together, and the memories that I made, and continue to make, are memories that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Our late nights in Jennings and our spontaneous excursions were only possible because we were partners in crime, before, during, and after our time as roommates. Embrace your proximity to your roommate. These are the days that you will look back on when you are old and wrinkly.

Make sure that you can look back on a time spent with someone that you love.

Everyone will tell you not to do it, but here I am, telling you to go for it. You are best friends because you love each other and care about each other, and living together and getting in a disagreement about who left the toaster plugged in is not going to be the end of the world. Embrace your rare, beautiful, incredible friendship and go all in this crazy and scary journey that is about to begin. You will be glad you did.