Hello, again. I realized before I leave I have some very important thankyous to tell.

To my roommates:

• For tolerating me turning our bathroom to a swimming pool (because I would take hour long baths and dance in the shower while also compulsively changing the songs on my Bluetooth speaker, because I am just never satisfied with the YouTube suggestions).
• For not speaking to me in the mornings, and giving me my own sweet time to snap out of my “ugh I am annoyed it’s morning” mood. Between one of you brewing black coffee for 20 mins, and another making good old chaai, mornings in our house were pretty pleasant.
• For letting me sleep for a month every time I would come back from India.
• For sleeping with me on the floor when we didn’t have electricity for a week and for gossiping with me from midnight to 8 am.
• For being so excited about grocery shopping that I never had to take a look at any of the grocery shopping apps, to cooking all kinds of extravagant meals so that all I had to do was washing dishes.
• For being the first people I could think of when I could have used some strength, both of you in different times.
• For being there during the lows, and the highs. For celebrations, birthdays. For hosting parties. For wine and daaru nights. For so many Snapchat worthy memories. For not being roommates but in the truest sense of the word, friends.

However messy it may be, we didn’t just share an apartment, we built a home. A home where there was more laughter than tears. A home where small pet peeves didn’t get in the way of building a truly solid friendship. A home where you on most days, would find us, digging into some ice cream (or some cheesecake) bitching about the newest person we have a crush on or crying about how the previous one ended or gushing over how beautifully perfect relationship one of us is in.

To my neighbors in LA :

What do I say about these idiots?

• Thank you for accompanying me to the library for completing an assignment at midnight. Thank you for being my binging partner, whether it be horror movies, or shows where I keep forgetting the plot every time. Thank you for gossiping until the sun rises and taking long walks discussing everything and anything.
• Thank you for annoying the crap out of me. Waking me up while I am in the deep sleep zone, throwing my chappals anywhere and everywhere, and still continuing the annoyance without missing a beat.
• Thank you for being the smartest person in the group and still being the coolest person too. Tough to manage, no? From strangers to neighbors, from looking away to tolerating how much I talk, we came a long way.
• Thank you for always being there, through life’s ups and downs, for always being there to talk it out. For single handedly increasing my phone call durations. For accompanying me in impromptu trips.

If there was any semblance to having a family in US, it was these five idiots that I hung out with for those two years in graduate school. We really lived the F.R.I.E.N.D.S life.

I am super happy that the bond we shared has continued to grow, and is still a very big part of our life today. I know, life is going to change gears and we are all going to be very busy in different things, probably in different cities, in different parts of the world, but I know we are all one call away always.

I know whenever we would think of those two years, we would also think about the six of us. Casually hanging out, laughing at the same old jokes a million times, being there for assignments, interviews and everything in between. I know that picture of USC would be incomplete without our picture right next to it. I could not have asked for more!

To all the DJ Fam :

DJ, my undergrad college, was a fantastic place with a lot of fantastic people. Turns out I chose to not interact with most of them during my undergrad period. But I am glad we connected while at USC and then in Seattle and even in Cincy. Just the comfort of having known people around, made it so much easier, whether it be making plans, being part of large parties, game nights, birthday celebrations, or smaller convenience things like getting a wifi setup, which mattress to buy, etc.

A very, very, very special shoutout to one of my roommate’s boyfriend. You know, those friendships, where you don’t have to explain a ton, don’t have to speak everyday, but whenever you speak, you are back to exactly how you were. We had / have (not confirmed) one of those kind of friendships, which is thoda strange now that I think of, considering it was all rooted in being mean to each other (mostly to me). Thank you for giving me suggestions I never asked for. For bud light platinum, and mac book, and Sarabhai. Some of the coolest stuff!

To my bumble bee group :

Thanks for being the coolest chicks ever. I could have never imagined that a random connection, a random state fair day, could turn into the friendship that we have today. Thank you for being there in the most difficult times, for helping me navigate the worst crisis situations, for saying the most encouraging, the most sweetest things. For introducing me to a bunch of cool women, and for showing me how truly empowering girl friendships could be. You guys are the best! Anytime you come to India, in any corner, you have to tell me. We have to see each other every time y’all come.

To my “special” friends :

For teaching me the life lessons I never wanted to learn, haha. Okay, bad joke but I hope wherever you are, whatever you do in life, you are very, very happy. Happier than humanly possible. All said and done, a lot of my smiles were because of you.

To other kind people :

To my coworker at Amazon, who made life better by co-bitching about our team always. Hope to see you soon in Mumbai!

To a friend I met during my internship at Amazon, for the nice time I had in LA.

To a fellow flight traveler in Cincy who turned into a friend, by being the sweetest person. Helping me, a five foot person carrying so much luggage to my new place.

To all my girl friends in the infamous bachelorette, we didn’t get too much time after that, but I’ll always remember that weekend as the most hap girl time ever. Any time y’all are in India, hit me up. I promise you it will be a lot of fun!

To my manager, who is the sweetest boss (friend) one could ever ask for. With whom I have ranted about my boyfriend problems and discussed about bollywood movies (having an Indian wife helps). Who made Cincy bearable. Who I have embarrassed a lot by crying twice in front of. I hope you always stay happy. I am going to email you time and again, giving you updates about my new job, how the arrange marriage thing goes, the bollywood movies you have to watch, etc. Anytime y’all are in India, hit me up.

Okay, I guess I have rambled. Like always. Just documenting the love, you guys. I hope you all know I am going to miss the hell out of you. So miss me, okay?

I hope years later, the time we have spent together, comes in your top rated happy moments. I am competitive like that. I hope years later, when we are all 40, with some kids, and an annoyingly boring partner, we rethink of the time we were in our twenties, wondering how could we drink so much and how could we be so irresponsible and what the hell were we thinking. I hope years later, you still think of me as a good friend, who you couldn’t give enough gifts to, and could not appreciate enough, haha. See y’all soon, just on a different continent!

Acha chalti hoon, duaaon mein yaad rakhna!

Categories: Uncategorized

Feya Shah

Living life one day at a time and on the side, telling you about it!