College is a time of new beginnings and fresh starts, but that doesn't necessarily mean with new people. Today I wanted to change pace a little bit and share with y'all one of the most important and influential people in my life, Nicole. We went to high school together for four years, but it took moving to Manhattan for us to really get to know each other and become friends.
Now I use the term "stranger" a little loosely when referring to high school. We crossed paths a couple times. Freshman year we were both on the cheer team, and junior year we had a physics class together where I remember her crying while reading The Fault in Our Stars. But other than that we never really ran in the same circles or talked to each other.
Fast forward a couple years later and we both decided to move to Manhattan to attend K-State. It was bid night at the end of recruitment week our freshman year, and guess who both had Alpha Xi Delta written on their bid cards. Among the excitement and chaos that was bid night it was comforting to gravitate toward a familiar face. After bid night she became my go-to person to sit with at dinner at Alpha Xi and hang out with on the weekend. With none of my good friends from home going to K-State, she quickly became my closest friend in Manhattan.
Then sophomore year came, and that's where the real fun began! We both moved into our sorority house, aka the Xi Mansion, and between pranks, movie nights, learning to breakdance in the formal room and many trips to McDonald's to get her frozen cokes we became best friends. This rock-climbing, hacky-sacking, go-getter is one free spirit (she even tattooed a smiley face on herself last year!), but she manages to balance out my homebody self.
Now, for our second year living in the house, we're roommates! It's been an eyeopening experience with our disagreements over color blindness and the volume of my gulping, but those have both been things a quick Instagram poll can fix! I'm also proud to say she's now my #1 dancing buddy; I can't imagine any of my other friends doing the worm with me on the front lawn haha!
Although, more than all of our fun memories together, Nicole has impacted me in one of the most positive ways possible. It was through her friendship that I started exploring my faith, something that is now one of the biggest parts of my life, and looking at my college experience differently. She's shown me what prioritizing faith looks like and has constantly been one of my biggest supporters in everything I do, especially Falling for Autumn. Since freshman year, I feel like we have both helped one another grow into more gracious and successful women.
Our friendship will always be something I'm grateful to Alpha Xi for, and it just goes to show that college, while it can be a place for starting fresh, can also be an opportunity to cultivate the friendships you least expect. If you would've told me six years ago that Nicole would one day be my roomie and calling me "Tommy" around every corner I would've probably said Nicole who? But here we are stealing cookies for each other and sharing an eyelash curler.
What is your favorite part about your best friend? Share the love in the comments below, or better yet, get in the Thanksgiving spirit and write them a note telling them why you're grateful for their friendship!
No comments