I met my first college friends at Orientation and then Cougar Excursion. Hanna and Jessica became my best friends before college had hardly begun. I was lucky to have them. It made meeting people much more bearable. Sure, I still called my parents and best friends from home crying about how I was alone in my dorm on a Friday night, but that was all temporary. I made friends and started having plans on weekends. I had a roommate named Michelle and 2 suitemates named Lydia and Tara. We may not be as close anymore, but it was good to have lived with them. I went to a meeting for the South Carolina Student Legislature, which was intimidating and welcoming at the same time. Sarah Harvey and Rebecca Lockhart took me under their collective wings and I felt like part of the family. I met Scotti, who would eventually become a roommate and best friend. Everyone in the organization was welcoming in their own ways. Brady always invited me to the parties at his house, even if I was an awkward freshman. Christine and I organized a trip to Amsterdam and Paris. Casey joined our group and came with us on beach outings.
That summer, I moved into an apartment with Hanna and Scotti. Things started out well, with us taking trips to Clemson (Hanna and I) and Montreal (Scotti and I). We began to become more fractured and it seemed like I had to be friends with them separately, even though we were all living under the same roof. We all had our fair share of boy drama, but nothing compared with the trouble of roommates who don’t get along. Needless to say, we couldn’t live together another year. When I moved out that summer, I wasn’t sure if I would be friends with either of them when I came back to school. But don’t worry, I eventually became friends with them again. In efforts to leave the troubles of the year before behind me, I chopped off my hair and moved home to Atlanta to spend time with my friends from home and my family.
When I came back, I needed a no drama household. I moved into a big house with a bunch of people who were mostly strangers to me. I had met Rose and Michelle the year prior when I was responding to an ad on Facebook for roommates. They had transferred from Goucher College and were moving into a house Rose’s parents owned. Michelle’s friend Sara was moving down here from Boston to live with us and the last roommate was still up in the air. When I found out that it was my friend Bethany from freshman year, I was overjoyed. It was good to have someone there that I had known for four years. It was odd at first. These personality types were different than anyone I had ever met before. In your face honest, loud and sometimes even lewd. But I loved it. I loved living somewhere that I could talk openly about anything and wouldn’t be judged. We all hung out as a group for a while, but eventually settled into our own friends. I may have partied a little too hard to keep from remembering events of the year before, but I calmed down after a few months.
I got an internship at the Charleston City Paper and stayed for my first full Charleston summer. The other roommates were also staying for the summer, with the exception of Sara, who was going home to see her family. Rose, Bethany and I hung out nearly every night. In June, Caitlin moved in, who would be subletting for Sara while she was in Chile for the semester. We had different roommate philosophies, so it was tense at times. On my 21st birthday, I found out that Michelle was moving out, so we had to find someone else to move in. Damian moved in a few weeks later. I got out of town a few weeks later for a trip to Grand Cayman with my friends from home. I went to Nashville a few weeks after school started for my aunt’s wedding. I got into the habit of going out with Bethany and her friends a couple nights a week and spend way too much money at Johnson’s. I started a second internship at CCP and became friends with Marina, another Atlanta area transplant. Damian’s extracurricular activities led us to find a new roommate. Stephanie Jo moved in shortly after. My blog surpassed the one year mark and I was shocked at the amount of support I received from it. I crossed off as many items off my Charleston list as possible. I started working at The Taco Spot, where I have developed my intense love for Mexican food (that sort of already existed). And then I graduated.
So there you have it. It’s been amazing and terrible and frustrating and exhilarating. And I will never get these years back. It’s only forward from here. I love you all and hope to see you again when the time is right.
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