I got a girl I did not particularly like. We were the hi/bye kind of classmates, and there she was, allocated to be my roommate. Of course, I considered switching rooms, or being the kind of roommates who would just never be there. For a week or two, I was a day scholar. Then I decided to delve into her world. Happy! We have, laughed, cried, failed, studied and most importantly, grown as buddies.

As a roommate, she was equally neat, calm and clean. She was the careful one, I was the extremely careless one.

At one point, I lost my keys! She did not punish me. Wait, there was one fateful night she did. I made my habitual long visits to my best friend which usually run up to two/ three in the morning. We constantly have things to laugh about and bones to chew together. I can’t say she is the rib-cracking funny type of girl, but we sure laugh till our ribs ache.

I was early on this night, 1.00am is really early to leave a laugh factory. I crept back, like those husbands who were annoyed by their wives earlier in the day and decided to go drinking. They later come home at wee hours, knock metrically and wait for their wives to open, warm food for them, and later tack them to bed while singing songs of apology besides giving them a massage using olive oil. I was told that this oil has a soothing effect if used for massage, I am yet to prove.

Knock knock knock…

No reply.

I decided to blow her phone with unending calls. Girl was having her beauty sleep, growing her dimples and I am not sure whether the dreams were nightmares or one of those sweet dreams with a prince charming and an ogre at the same time. Persistence. Back to knocking. Where to sleep? Snoopy neighbours of course agreed we were having some challenges that are usually associated with either boyfriends or shopping. The two main reasons for fights are either because one of them is not taking part in doing shopping and yet they eat more than the buyer, or one has a boyfriend and the other one feels that having one is abomination. They spend hours praying for the Holy Ghost to show their immoral roommate the way to salvation or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Just for the record, we never fought over either of the two. End of story, I crawled back to my best friends for the night, but sharing a tiny bed was not a piece of cake.

The year has gone by really fast! I now live alone, but she got me a room next to hers. I am not very tolerant when it comes to gossips or grapevines, and having a girl who really doesn’t blow my ears with non value adding talks about other people is something I appreciate.

This year, my special gratitude goes to my best friend Elsie, and my roommate Raquel. For being there all along, for laughing out my frustrations through the year and celebrating my successes, for all the shoes I spoilt, all the times you were my ATM accounts, for all the drama in our lives, for all the love and joy you have added to my life and the small fights which I cannot remember. My most priceless gifts!

And ofcourse, my amazing Family.

Three cents