The butterfly effect, or the ideas that small and (seemingly insignificant) changes or decisions can create monumentally-influential changes in one’s life, is a huge topic of conversation on Tik Tok right now.
If I think too deeply about the subject of decision-making and outcomes, I begin to spiral too much (because isn’t every decision going to create a different outcome – hence the butterfly effect is created literally all the time?
Either way, with my final weeks as a “real” college student coming and going, I have been thinking nonstop about every choice I have made that has led me to this moment in my life. More specifically, the actions I took (or did not take) that brought me to the people who will forever hold the title of “my college roommates” (and “best friends from college” but that’s a given).
As a final sign-off and thank you to the three girls, now women, that have changed my life for the better and truly make me thankful for the butterfly effect, here’s my recollection of how four girls from different states came to be “the girls of Pink”:
Claire
Thank god St Bonaventure’s randomized spinners put us in 107 Fal together.
As my first face and friend at this school, I truly do not think I would have made it to December, and through January, and into February and all the way to May without your patience, love, acceptance and forgiveness.
The number one thing that I have always admired about you (among many qualities) was how easily you nonjudgmentally let me be me. Whether it’s a messy room, a drunk impulse or an uncomfortable confrontation with someone who lived two floors above us, you have always given me space to make mistakes, and when I realized I screwed up, you were always there waiting with a vanilla bean coolatta and open arms.
The two of us have seen so many friends, experiences, awkward situationships, victories, fights, late-night papers, late-night debriefs and some of our most vulnerable moments over the last four years. We have experienced firsthand just how a person can know everything at eighteen and nothing at twenty-two (or, in my case, twenty-one).
And, thankfully, we have always been able to enjoy hours of living in the past, sending each other pictures and videos from two years prior and reminiscing over just how strange our first two years of college were, even if we did not fully realize it at the time.
Claire, you are intelligent, kind, inclusive, thoughtful, strong, compassionate, empathetic, forgiving and incredibly dedicated to everything you put your mind to.
I will never know what I did to deserve you in my life.
I was the luckiest freshman and am the most fortunate senior because I know you.
Thank you for changing my life. We4e.
Ellie
Thank God you decided to join Claire (and me, by association) after Candlelight.
While I cannot take credit for how I came to know you, I have never spent one day taking our meeting for granted.
Even though I tell most people that the first thing I remember about you is how you introduced me to Dance Team, the truth is that my first impression of you was when I complained about how I had a really bad college essay and you confidently responded that yours was easy to write because you could just write about your mom.
I will never forget just how shocked and immediately awkwardly-guilty I felt.
I also will never forget how you smiled and giggled after dropping such a loaded statement on a group of strangers.
From that day on, I knew you were a layered (and incredibly funny) person who had an infectiously-positive outlook on life.
And I could not have been more right about all of those things.
I do not think a single person has taught me more about life than you have.
You have shown me how to balance activities with grace and passion. You have given me the “shake it off” mentality that has kept me sane these last few years. You have been a patient ear when I wanted it and had a tongue of tough love when I needed it.
While all of these are amazing in their own way, one of the greatest things about you is your ability to just let things go. You rarely hold a grudge and you forgive people for their missteps, which not only is refreshing to live with, but inspiring to observe from a close lens.
When I have been at my most anxious about a test or a social interaction or an event at dance, you have been the first not to just listen with an empathetic ear, but also remind me that not everything carries as much weight as I think. Yes, I am allowed to feel stressed out, but you are also such a good reminder of how to zoom out and see the larger picture – which always makes me relax even the slightest bit.
No matter how much time passes in my life, I will be forever grateful for being able to grow up here with you.
Thank you for changing my life.
Leah
Thank God I worked up the courage to slide into the empty chair next to you in Education 208 and ask you out of nowhere if you wanted to live in a townhouse.
While your official entrance into my life came later than I would’ve wished, I will be forever grateful that our paths of life were so similar that we were basically forced to become friends at some point.
From being strangers who stood side-by-side in our hip hop class as freshmen to fifth years that will (hopefully) share an office in the building where we first met, it is not lost on me just how much my life has changed because of you.
You have sat with me at my worst and cheered me on at my best. You’re always willing to pick me up when I need a ride, order a second McFlurry if I haven’t answered your text and lend an extra spritz of your favorite perfume (even when the atomizer is screwed up).
Now, Leah, I know you’ll appreciate this not-so-astute observation, but one of my favorite things about you is your willingness and ability to truly know someone. And I don’t just mean learning their class schedule or their favorite smoothie flavor at Freshens.
You are able to see what people care about most and you remember that forever. You learn their moods and what typically causes their behaviors. You know what tiny comments can cut deepest and check in on people after they’ve received even the smallest of digs against them.
You even buy birthday presents that may not make any sense to anyone besides the giftee – something I know you take great pride in.
Leah, thank you for knowing me. It means more than you’ll ever realize.
Thank God fate forced us to be in the same room so many times that we eventually interacted.
And thank you for changing my life.
All of these instances, these seemingly-insignificant moments, have led me to my pink house with a slanted kitchen floor and a living room full of love and laughter. All of these people have given me memories that I will never forget and highs that I will never stop chasing.
Thank you, Claire, Ellie and Leah, for being the best roommates and friends I could have ever imagined.
My life is forever changed for the better.
To “the girls of Pink”!