As I came into my freshman year of college this year, the one thing I was most nervous about was living with a roommate for the first time.Â
Ever since I was born, I have never had to share a room with anyone. I always had my own space and found peace within the comfort of being alone. My bedroom was where I would endlessly scroll on TikTok and have my own time to decompress from the chaos of my life. It was an escape and a place I felt safe.
So naturally, when I actually had to start sharing a space with someone else, I was apprehensive.
My roommate, Sydney, and I live only fifteen minutes apart back home, though we attended different high schools. We both ran cross country and track in Section VI of New York State, but we were never more than competitors. Our conversations were limited to brief small talk on the sidelines once or twice before a few races—just enough to know each other’s names, but not each other as people.
When move-in day finally arrived on Aug. 20, I was nervous about feeling that I would not be a suitable roommate for anyone. After all, I didn’t know her very well coming into St. Bonaventure, and I have always been an individual who loved my alone time. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work out.Â
But by the end of my first week, Sydney became not only my best friend, but also my family. It truly couldn’t have worked out better. The bond we have created over the past month and a half is unbreakable in the sense that I knew by the end of the first week that she was going to be someone I would be close with for life.Â
She’s the kind of person who never turns down a new opportunity and somehow always knows when to give me space or when to be right by my side. It’s like we’re on the same wavelength—thinking the same thoughts, finishing each other’s sentences, and laughing at the same things that no one else would find funny. She makes even the hardest days feel lighter. No matter what happens, I know I can count on her, and that’s something really special.
I feel more at peace with her by my side than being alone, which would be hard for me to believe if I told myself that just two months ago.Â
In this sense, it’s hard for me to believe that there was a time when I didn’t know her and she wasn’t my best friend who understood me like no one ever could. She was always there at the same meets as my team, or running in the same race as me, but all I knew was her name. We were always in the same places without a clue of who the other was, not realizing that in a short time, she would become one of the most influential people in my life.
So when I think back to that time when all I knew about Sydney was her name, I feel truly grateful for that invisible string that tied me to her.