Stuck together

Guess who's coming to visit this weekend?!

Ashley!

Just picking out pictures for this collage put a huge smile on my face. Ashley, for those who don't already know her, is my college roommate. We were paired up to live in the same tiny dorm room freshman year and haven't seemed to get rid of each other since.

When I first met Ashley, she had never been camping. She wasn't the outdoorsy type. She was a little spitfire with a really fantastic closet of clothes. We had both worn the same red dress for our high school prom and we both had two older sisters. It was totally meant to be.

Our freshman year of college was tough, although I don't remember it that way. I really have to dig in and remember how many tears, yelling matches, arguments and silent treatments went on in that tiny 11x13' dorm room.* It's funny how your mind plays tricks on your memory. When I look back on my freshmen year of college, all I remember are the good times. The extreme highs. I remember when Ashley and I pulled an all-nighter driving back to school after a three-day weekend singing our heads off at a country music festival to make our 8 a.m. classes Monday morning. I remember doing Ashley's hair before going to a fraternity pinning with a special date and feeling like a proud mom taking pictures of them together. But that year was tough. We were miles and miles away from home, in a brand new city, knew practically no one and living with a stranger. The really tough days, when we were missing our family or when we were having boyfriend drama or when we just wanted to have pity parties for ourselves, solidified our friendship. We had to learn how to support each other.

Once we got past that tough year, we were stuck together forever. We've grown and changed together. Ashley is totally the outdoorsy type now. She even went on a 40(?) mile backpacking trip our senior year! I'm looking forward to another weekend of epic proportions with her in Austin.

And if there's any lesson to be learned here: when times are tough, keep the faith. Stay positive. And above all, stay friends. You'll look back and only remember the good.

*I kid you not, that's how small our dorm room was, and we were the lucky ones! We only had two girls rooming together, while the rest of our hallmates had three!