A lot of you probably don’t know this, but Daniel and I have had a roommate! My cousin Jennifer has been living with us since November. She’s in medical school, and one of her rotations took place in my town. When she first mentioned the possibility of coming to Durant’s hospital about a year ago, I immediately offered up the spare bedroom in our house without a second thought. I knew student housing would have been provided for her,  but I figured that if she had to spend that much time away from her husband, Stacey, she might as well spend it with family.

Right after I agreed to let her live with us, I had a five-second mental breakdown.

“Okay…what did I just do. I know we grew up together, but what if this was a bad idea? What if she hates living with us?? She’s gonna find out how awful of a ‘housewife’ I am…”

I’ll never forget the day she moved in. We brought in boxes, books, and basically her entire closet from the back of her car, and I thought, “This is going to be weird.”

But early this morning, she packed all of that stuff back in her car, and it about broke my heart. Her time here FLEW by, and although I’m so happy that she finally gets to go home to her husband and dog-child for a little while, I hate saying goodbye to her. I hate it. We’ve spent our whole lives living at least 45 minutes apart from each other, and I never could have guessed that we would get to live under the same roof for a short time. 8-year-old Jennifer and Laura would be jumping for joy, haha!

Jennifer fits every description that exists for the phrase “best friend.” I think she’s seen me in every possible context by now, and I hope I was as fun to live with as she was! She introduced me to Yoga With Adriene; she turned Daniel into a Grey’s Anatomy fan; she became my dog’s best friend; she kept me company on the nights Daniel had to work late; and she taught me another decent way to make potatoes. ;) We are the most unlikely of roommates, but the last four months have been THE BEST.

We realized too late that we took zero pictures together the entire time she lived with us, and the only ones I took were of her trying to make Fitz (our dog) fall in love with her (which he did). We asked Daniel to take a picture of us last night, which of course was the worst idea ever, but he actually got some cute ones of us laughing!

Jen – you were the best roommate ever!! I hate how empty your room is, but I know you’ll be back. I’ll remember the conversations we had in this house forever. ♥ Love you and miss you already!