Letter #42 - Danielle

Sometimes we meet people under odd circumstances.  Becoming roommates is one of those odd circumstances to me.  "Hey meet this person you will now share very close living quarters with for the next year, hope you like them!"  When I was a freshman in college, I met Danielle.  We were roommates.  We had spoken once or twice on the phone before we moved into the dorms, and she has this hilarious story about how she was convinced I was blonde.

Danielle and I ended up being an excellent match.  We turned into really good friends, and ended up living together for 3 years.  Danielle recently moved to the Detroit area, which has allowed us to hang out a lot more.  She is one of the few friends I have around here who would much rather do non-standard things (aka not grab dinner and a movie, instead, go to the zoo in the middle of winter).  I love it because it allows me to do stuff I wouldn't ordinarily get the chance to do (like go to the zoo in the middle of winter).  She's also my "culture" friend, she loves to go to plays, musicals, etc, which a lot of my friends in the area don't really get into, so when I want to do stuff like that, she's my first call :o)

Today I sent Danielle a note because she has been having a rough week.  I wanted to send her some encouragement.  Writing to Danielle let's me remember some of the awesome times we've had together, and makes me feel good because I really love spending time with her.  Her conversations almost always make me feel better about life, even if it happens to be sucking at the time.  Everyone should have a Danielle in their life. For real.

Letter #31 - Renatta

Renatta is my third classmate who was absent from class this past weekend.  She is one of my classmates that I haven't had much opportunity to get to know very well yet.  She tends to flip flop between being very vocal in class and just sitting back and absorbing the discussion.  Last class she was struggling with deciding whether she was going to continue in the program or not, so my letter was one of encouragement, hoping she will decide to rejoin us in February... if she decides this is the path for her!

I am hoping if Renatta does come back next month, that my letter will have opened a door for us to start getting to know each other better.