Miracles in Housing
Roommates. They are a necessary thing in every single girl’s life, partly because we can’t afford our own place, and partly because without them our lives would be a little less exciting, a little less dramatic and a lot more lonely. I’ve certainly gone through my fair share in my years since high school. Some have been catty, mean and stressful, like the girls I lived with my first semester of college who let drunk boys sleep on our couch and called me horrible names behind my back and to my face. Luckily since then I’ve been blessed with (mostly) terrific, fun and kind girls to share my space and my life with, and a few have become my best friends. Like Whitney, who introduced me to my artistic side and always encouraged me to follow my passions. Her going on a mission was a great example to me and I’m so grateful for her. She I and are in the same ward again this summer and I could not be happier to have her around. And then there was Jessie, who kept me grounded during one of the most difficult times of my life. She’s married now to a boy I watched her fall in love with, proving that good people do get what they deserve. I miss her and wish we had stayed in touch better.
My roommate experience since moving back to Salt Lake a little over a year ago has been nothing short of miraculous. I basically picked an apartment at random and ended up living with Michelle, exactly the kind of girl I needed, who also happened to need me. We had a wonderful/horrible few months in that first apartment and then we decided to move, probably to Sugar House or somewhere else a little more hip than Sandy. But as a last ditch effort to stay in our ward we announced in Relief Society we needed a place to live. And there on the second row was Jill, the beautiful, intimidating former classmate of Michelle’s who just bought a house and was looking for someone to move in. We didn’t expect to be friends with Jill, but the next Sunday after church as Jill and I sat on the couch and bonded over which boys in our ward were the cutest, I knew the three of us would be fast friends.
It’s been almost a year since that fateful Sunday and we’ve been through a lot. We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve fought, we’ve eaten ridiculous amounts of ice cream. And now they’ve both found the perfect guys for them and are getting married. Watching them both go through this process from beginning to end in such different ways has been a learning experience and I’m so grateful to have been there. I hope their respective future husbands know how lucky they are to be marrying these strong, smart, funny girls. I’m going to miss them so much, my life has been enriched beyond measure by their kindness and love and unflinching loyalty. I will never be quiet the same.
But that’s just how life is. Things change, people progress, and hopefully you take a little of them with you as you move on too. Happily, another Housing Miracle is about to occur and before long I’ll be living with some of the best girls I know. And we’ll have our own inside jokes and bonding moments. We’ll get in fights and break up with boys and cry and laugh and eat ice cream and I’ll never want anything to change. But then it will, that’s just how it is.
Jill and Michelle, good luck in the next phase of your lives. I’m glad we were thrown together, you were just what I needed. I love you to the fourth floor and back.
