Once you go rat, you never go back.

I made it! Finals are OVER. Which means so many things. The sounds of "the zetas" (we knew nothing about them except their greek affiliation, thus the nickname) thumping around upstairs and the other various sounds of Rat Farm are now replaced with the pitter patter of Charlie's paws on the tile, and my dad's whistling.

I know this isn't about Kenya, but I wanted to take a second to honor Rat Farm. I think throw the term around a lot, and maybe haven't fully explained what, or rather "who," Rat Farm is. Warning, it's about to get real. And by real I mean cheesy.

This past year, I lived with Jeannie, Katie, and Melissa. We became best friends freshman year through Katie, and quickly decided to live together once we escaped the glorious dorm life. We are all four ridiculously different, and before college I would not have expected us to be best friends. Yet, it works. It works beautifully! This year was not easy, and some times were definitely harder than others, but boy will I remember and treasure it forever. I learned so much from them. To scratch the surface, here are a few things that immediately came to mind.

-Sometimes you just have to laugh at someone and get over it.
-God did not create us to walk alone.
-There will always always always be places that I lack as a roommate, and there's beauty in being vulnerable.
-There comes a time of night when only a true friend will be willing to go to Whataburger.
-Accepting other people's help is okay and do-able.
-Other people's quirks and idiosyncrasies are hilarious and should be celebrated.

One thing that I don't think I realized until I got home is that these girls always let me be. They never held expectations over my head, or let my value as a roommate depend on my consistency. I feel like the longer we lived together, the more we were able to celebrate each other well and develop a sort of "come as you are" mentality.

We've laughed (cackled), cried, experienced the "firsts" of freshman and sophomore year, attempted countless failed home-maintenance efforts, walked through boyfriend break-ups, watched RG3 win the Heisman, made an embarrassing amount of late-night Whataburger runs, and had so many more memories together that I am so grateful for!

We're splitting ways for next year, but I'm not worried. We'll have Rat Farm nights and be able to pick up right where we left off. Rat Farm was half of my college experience and I am so glad!!

These gems are going places in life. I cannot wait to see where they end up. I wish you knew them like I do!

(We found rat droppings in our apartment within a week of living there. Then got ahold of the song "Snake Farm". Hence the nickname. We know it's gross. Feel free to like us on facebook!)

And we started to make a song/video but we just ended up with this. I don't hate it.