Cami

Ben asked me the other day, "Which roommate influenced you the most?" I told him definitely Cami. We roomed together for my first 2 years at BYU. Ben and I started dating just after she moved out and got married. For me she's the one who brought all the meaning and fun to that time in Bountiful Court.

She thought about the world and people outside of our little BYU world. I can't say I did that before. She got me thinking outside myself.

She asked questions that made me think: "What have we merited?"

She got me out of my shell, I would have never gone to meet people without her. And did we ever meet people. Pretty much every person in 36 apartments, 6 people each, for 4 very transient semesters and 2 terms.

She thought of friendly pranks, dates ideas, conversation starters (what are you passionate about?), service (soup kitchen, note taking for people with disabilities, sports hero day), recipes (bran muffins, mock tacos), good music (Cuenca CD, Italy CD).

She adventured out and brought me along (Colorado with Brian, geocaching, canyoneering, 4-wheeling, playing in the rain, rollerblading).

And we shared all our dating life together: good dates, bad dates, boyfriends, kisses, confusion, heartbreaks and many DTRs.

Not to mention she outfitted the entire apartment, especially me, and decorated the whole thing too.

She singlehandedly made the culture for me. She defined my entire experience. And at a time I consider to be the most important turning point of my life, side by side with my CS Lewis class. I feel like I just floated along and didn't contribute a thing and she just made it happen. Those were some of best fun and fastest learning of my life.

And if that's not enough she sparked the friendship my sister Emily and I now enjoy. In a conversation while she and I were visiting in Oregon she told us to--hello--talk about the boys you like. Seriously her prompting that was groundbreaking. Embarrassing to admit it but true. We'd always kept that personal stuff to ourselves. But she inspired what we call the Sisterhood Pact. We still talk about it and keep to it. It has helped us become very close friends.

All of that was one person. And she did 2 years of this stuff. Cami is a pretty wonderful person. I think it providential we were paired together in apartment 5 just when I needed her.