Now this is a love that’s built to last.

Seems like all sorts of people find everlasting love during NSOP. Which, good for them. But no matter how happy we are for any campus lovebirds, the publication of their relationship’s beginnings in something as entirely unromantic as the Columbia Daily Spectator is nigh-on unforgivable. So here, baby Bwoggers J and Olivia Nelson present a different sort of freshman love.

We ran into each other through Barnard’s random roommate placement software, eager to form an intimate connection with an alluring stranger. We spent the evening getting to know one another, and we knew it was a fateful connection when we found out that we had the same favorite flavor of Juul pod. Expectations were a consistent theme in our conversation. Where did we expect to put Simon, our shared orchid? Whose turn was it to wear the lone pair of flip flops to the shower?

We went to our respective beds that night both feeling we had met someone truly special – special in the sense that one of us was a 5’4’’ Asian nicotine fiend and the other the human equivalent of a golden retriever. We met for breakfast the next day, because we had no other friends, and for coffee after that, because, once again, we had no other friends. Homework sessions quickly turned into joint adventures to remote corners of Reid 2, and we spent countless midnight moments talking to random drunkards near the halal cart on 116th.

We latched onto one another early in our first week, aware of how important our bond was becoming due to the fact that we spoke to no one else, and were unwilling to socialize. Obviously, we both held preconceived notions of how freshman year should be carried out: filled with DSig parties, meaningless hookups, and Bumble dates at Ferris.

Now approaching the third week, we’re still living together and neither of us has made any other friends. A lot of people, parents and close companions included, questioned this choice. Was it wise to spend your entire college experience with a single human being? We tell them: we don’t know you, we do NOT want to talk to you, and you have just lost access to the contents of our shared fridge.

Our advice to the freshmen who are yet to come: social norms dictate that you have to have more then one companion. To that we say: no. If you really like someone, tell them, follow them, live with them. Don’t be afraid to try it out, even if it’s your first few days on campus.

We did, and we couldn’t be more alone, and happy in our solitude.

Editor’s note: This post has been edited to remove identifying information about an individual and the original header photograph.

Image via Bwog Archives.