A thank-you letter to my freshman roommate, my best friend in college

To my first year roommate,

Aside from dealing with my many annoying habits, allow me to thank you for a few more things. Thank you for liking me the first day you met me at a questionable Thai restaurant in Brooklyn, and thank you for being my best friend an entire year later. Throughout this year, we watched each other grow up in ways that only a college freshman year roommate can. Both faced with a world completely foreign to us, a world that would eventually become ours, the walls of 1244 Jameson have bound us in ways that extend beyond formal living constraints.

Our long talks at 2 a.m – a product of our disordered sleeping habits and suspected insomnia – have meant so much to me. Whether they were about how much we needed to work out the next morning or a thoughtful disclosure of our most personal secrets, I can’t thank you enough for being there indefinitely. Our midnight runs to Nasties, messing around with random people on our floor, perpetuating each other’s tendency to miss class and never failing to make the best out of any situation have all been instrumental in making my college freshman experience the remarkable time period that it was.

I have not only learned to live with another person who was a complete stranger, but you have taught me to be independent, patient, forgiving and strong at all the right times. I’ve about learned your weird sleeping habits and the unparalleled value of your daily nap(s), which I have have, for better or for worse, adopted. I’ve also grown to understand that no other person appreciates the power of the aux, which has pioneered the power of 1244 (the OG plug) like we do. I know you can always count on me blasting my music on your beats pill the same way that I can count on you for an unpredictable Ithaca escapade in your Jeep that I still so desperately crave to drive – p.s. I’ll never forget the time you drove on the wrong side of the road and almost killed us. 🙂

Nonetheless, without each other, we couldn’t have survived all of the mental breakdowns, countless rants, nor could we have shared all the laughs that brought tears of pure joy to our eyes. Thank you for being my mother when I needed a supporter, my partner in crime when I needed a good adventure and my sister when mine were only reachable by means of FaceTime. But, most importantly, thank you for never being scared to point out my flaws and for constantly pushing me to be better.  

The memories in that tiny brick room and tall brick building- the silly, the serious and the sedentary – will never be forgotten. There is no other person’s alarms I would rather wake up to–and then snooze…and then go back to sleep to. I can not imagine experiencing my first year of college with any other person by my side, and I can confidently say that our memories together do not end here. To the future residents of 1244 Jameson or to any prospective Cornell student, I earnestly advise you to pick your roommate wisely and to cherish your freshman year; for it is fleeting.

I have no choice but to blame my freshman year roommate for the best year of my life. I’ve matured in ways I never imagined possible, acquired a newfound perspective on life – both equally lighthearted and pensive, and each day discovered a little bit more about myself. Thank you Mollie Tobin, for being the reason I accidentally call school, home.

Love you always!