I friggin’ love my roommates. I could just end it there. But then again, so could have Emma and me when we became friends four hours after moving in freshman year. We could have had our nightly dinners and kept it at that, not inviting other girls into our group or into our lives, being the closely-knit loners that we are both good at being.
Instead, Emma and I kept having dinner together and we kept talking to other people. Quickly, we–mostly Emma–brought people back into the dinner conversation and into our conversation with each other. It was occasionally hard to meet due to our individual schedules and my obsession during freshman year with only doing homework on the weekends, but we made it work and we did so with other people. Emma met Brooke and Jana in other classes and places and brought them to our dining hall table.
Once my sophomore year roommate had moved out, it was clear it was just going to be Emma, Jana, and myself. Spending almost every weekend together after the gym, sometimes with other people and sometimes the three of us, all bonded together as a unit. We became a cohesive group with a cohesive plan for most situations. It was easy to spend time with them and sprawl out across one of our floors with various snacks and talk or work or watch something ridiculous.
In planning for living together the next year, Brooke decided to move with us. Now, we needed one more to complete the number of people for a suite-style dorm. After much panic, Emma found a freshman on Facebook, named Sofia, and we signed up as a group and found the dorm on the same day. Now, the group is truly complete in its own way. It is an odd mishmash of personalities in a suite in a dorm on a college campus. We watch movies checked out from the campus library (some better than others) and talk about our days and our plans for next year and eat Ben & Jerry’s. It is a strange way to live–five friends in separate rooms right next to each other with a living room and a bathroom. However, in its own way, it is a delight. I do not think I would like to live any other way.