My College Roommate

My College Roommate - Still Friends After 28 Years! 

Who here still is friends with their college roommate? 28 years and Annie and I are still friends.

I graduated from Carroll College (now Carroll University) way back in January 1994. Annie was my roommate that first semester my senior year; we knew that she was only going to be there one semester then she was going to move out of state, and I only had one semester senior year because I was graduating early.

It was tough sometimes after college to stay in touch. This was before email and the Internet became so popular. Annie was in New York and I was in Wisconsin. She married a couple years later and she and her husband were stationed in Germany. She still has the letter I wrote to her there saying that I met a boy and was in love… that boy is now my hubby, Troy. 

 

Once Annie’s husband retired, they soon moved to a little city about 10 minutes from my house which it made it very easy to stop at their house or them to stop at mine.

I loved babysitting their children. These were the ones we would “rent” when a child was needed to watch a movie or go to Great America. My hubby, who usually doesn’t like children, actually enjoyed these kids. Of course, it helped that the two boys loved Nerf guns and Star Wars and Legos. And when their daughter was born, that little girl had my hubby wrapped around her little finger!! 

We always receive gifts of magnets from Annie and her family because they travel a lot. They recently went down to Florida for the SpaceX. They have gone to Iceland, Germany, Holland, South Dakota, Utah and many other places. We get magnets every single time. That's part of our relationship now.

I also have magnets of their children. Their middle child went through a ninja phase when he was probably about five years old; he would dress head to toe in black – black sweatshirt, black sweatpants, and a black scarf around his head. I have that ninja magnet on my refrigerator to this day. And he's so different now that he's older and 17 years old. We also have one of him playing peewee football. My hubby took pictures at one of his games and turned them into trading cards. It’s fun to look at the magnets and remember then when they were younger.

And then one day a few years ago, they moved away. Only about 45 minutes away, but to me, it seemed like the end of the world.  I know it's not that far away but them. I don’t see them as often as I would like anymore, but I’m lucky they still think of me and bring me gifts of magnets.