By Caroline Erskine

What they don’t include in the contract when you get a best friend:

You will know every detail of that one day when they were five, before you’d even met them.

You will be closer with their grandma than you are with yours. 

You will be able to have a 30 minute conversation in just one shared look. 

You will predict their thoughts and responses before they even know themselves. 

You will remember exactly what perfume they wear. 

You will be able to imitate that one horrible makeout session they had with a random douchebag years ago. 

Their dog will not bark as you enter unannounced through their front door.

You will be there to hold them while their cat gets put down.

You will develop a special signal that means you will have to debrief something later. 

You will call them at 2 am when you need them to tell you what to do, or what not to do. 

You will be on the receiving end of those 2 am calls, and not bite their head off. 

You will laugh and cry at the same time when they get into a college hours away from you. 

You will help them pack for their new life, though you won’t be there to see it. 

You will spend their last night in town together doing laundry. 

You will NOT cry as they drive away. Seriously not cry. 

You will FaceTime them when they get there and know everything will be okay.

 

We did not read the fine print. I only skimmed before I signed. 

I got to discover everything for myself, I’m glad I went in blind.

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Caroline Erskine (she/her) ‘28 is a magazine, news and digital journalism major. She enjoys writing in both her personal and academic life. In her free time, she enjoys thrifting, watching sitcoms, and playing her ukulele.