Going to college is one of the most exciting and scary time of a person’s life. We have to leave our homes where we’ve grown and blossomed, gaining friends and skill along the way. We hand our house keys over for dorm keys, home cooked meals for meal swipes and trade the comfort of our own bedrooms to shared doubles, triples and quads. We get roommates. Now everyone has a different roommate experience. Some get the roommate who is M.I.A. Some get the roommate who may questionably be a vampire based on how little she leaves the room.Some get a partier who doesn’t understand that you an 8 a.m. everyday even after you’ve reminded her again and again that getting woken up at 3 a.m. make it’s a hell of a lot harder to get up five hours later.
Some get are lucky enough to meet their best friend. Although shy at first, the two of you begin to connect over the fact that you can’t stand the girl who won’t stop sneaking guys into her room across the hall AFTER quiet hours! Or over the fact that both of you literally know every single word to “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from Mulan. Or how you both are the ‘mom’ of your friend group because growing up, you always looked out for your younger sister. Slowly, but surely the shyness slips away and the bond you and your roommate form is closer than that of any other person you’ve ever shared before. It may be because you’re stuck together in a jail cell, I mean small dorm room, but it gets to the point where you know each other better than yourself. Small facial gestures, noises and insides jokes become so regular that people begin to question if you’ve been friends from birth or just freshman year.
This roommate is literally you and you can’t imagine ever having to live with anyone else…. that is until you find out that you’re going abroad different semesters.
If the initial shock isn’t hard enough, try saying goodbye. With tearful eyes you bid each other goodbye and a safe trip, while trying to figure out how to fit into her suitcase. And just like that, it’s time to start over. Back to freshman year when the idea of living with new people is just mortifying. Will they understand your weird quirks? Will they appreciate getting serenaded with Disney melodies? Will they share that same hatred for the girl who sneaks boys into her room AFTER quiet hours?
All these questions rush through your head as you turn the key to your junior year- your year without your soulmate. From the start, these new roommates seem nice, but you constantly are fearful if it’s for show and they actually hate the fact that your OCD is over the top. You want to text your roommate abroad constantly, updating her on every little thing that happens, but you don’t because you know she’s enjoying her time. You know that she said to call or text any time, but let’s be real- you don’t go abroad to live vicariously through your friends back at home. With this in mind, you put your phone down and give these new roommates a chance.
As the semester goes on, you realize these new roommates aren’t so bad after all. Actually, they are just as weird as you. You’ve bonded over Disney movies, vines, and your hatred for those girls who try way too hard to sneak boys into their room AFTER quiet hours. You form new friendships that may never have been formed if these study abroad circumstance hadn’t happened.
As these new friendships form, one is still near and dear to your heart. You and your roommate (aka soulmate aka sister from another mister aka best friend). Although you aren’t together physically, you couldn’t be more in touch mentally. Weekly texts and Facetiming often allows the separation anxiety to be at a low 8 rather than a high 100. Sending Buzzfeed quizzes and articles with a ‘miss you’ helps keep your sanity somewhat in check. Getting random 3 a.m. texts of paragraphs of life updates prevents you from jumping on a plane and flying across the country. Having your current roommates in a similar boat as you makes you look less crazy for having a countdown to the awaited return of your best friend.
See, it’s the little things really. They’ll help you make it through. They’ve helped me and I know they can help you! Stay busy, make new friends and take your own adventures, so you have stories for when your roommate returns!
Stay strong; the next twenty something days will seem like forever, but, trust me, they’re missing us as much as we’re missing them!