Natalie Rochelle Klatchuk

If you see me at any point on Sunday, chances are I've been crying, am crying, or will be crying. You see, my other half leaves me to start her journey to Alberta, Canada, the land of maple syrup and moose. I would not have made it through this semester without her. We've essentially been inseparable since January 4th, when I first met her. I had flown in from America just that morning and was taking a much-needed nap. I woke up to the sound of someone moving around next door and I flew to the door and poked my lovely bed-head out, "HEY! My name is Taylor! What's yours? Where are you from?" I'm 99% sure she thought I was psycho. She introduced herself and we made plans to attend an introductory meeting at the university the following evening. After the meeting we went to braes and got our first drinks together. There have been many more.
We grocery shopped together from the very beginning, making meals for two every night. You could say we're dating, we don't mind ;).
We make meal plans and I have dinner ready for her when she gets home from class in the evening. She shares my totally rational, and not at all addicted, bacon cravings and we also both use men's deodorant...#meanttobe
We love Luke Bryan and popcorn. She is astonished at the amount of salt I can consume, but then again, so is everybody else. She rations toilet paper and makes me laugh until I cry regularly.
I have so many frameable photos of us that I'm sure her face will cover most of my room when I move into my new house.
We were craving cake one night and so we microwaved one from Premier to celebrate our one week anniversary of being friends.
I have too many fabulous memories with her to describe them all, but one of my favorites was the trip we took to North Berwick when we had only known each other for two weeks. To me, that is the best part of studying abroad, you feel like you've known someone for years when you've only just met. We took the train to a family friend just past Edinburgh on the coast of Scotland. We had our first official sleepover in two twin beds and explored three castles in the span of 36 hours. This trip is when we first coined our motto: "look like shit, but get shit done!" We've stuck to it ever since.
She's the Room 1 to my Room 2. She's my sanity when life is making me crazy. She's the Pringles to my Netflix.
It boggles my mind to think we've traveled to Ireland and countless places in Scotland together, but I've never seen her hometown and she's never seen mine. We aren't united by what we have in common in the past, but by what we share right now, and what we will have in the future.
Because she's never getting rid of me. Did you know there are direct flights from Dallas to Edmonton? I think I know where I'm going next after I return to America, eh?
I've mentioned a million times before that one of my favorite books is Anne of Green Gables and that my favorite quote in the world is from that book: "Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find there are so many of them in the world." Nat is one of the rare people to prove this to me and I'm so grateful she is in my life. She is my Canadian soul sister, I have no doubt about that.
I'm devastated that this particular adventure of ours is coming to a close. No more Netflix nights/afternoons/mornings, no more trying to sleep in the same twin bed and giving up at 6 AM, no more breakfasts for dinner, no more knocks on my door just to make sure I'm not peeing with the bathroom door open because obviously she's coming in no matter what. No more bus trips to Edinburgh, no more outrageously amazing steak dinners, no more shopping sprees at Paperchase. No more lusting over every pattern at Cath Kidston and cursing the damn exchange rate. Never again will we walk a mile in the rain just to get Krispy Kreme doughnuts from Tesco Extra or try to run off our anger and end up walking just 50 meters in. No more texting each other from bed when there's literally only a wall in between us. Even now while I write this I'm blaring Backstreet Boys and she just texted me from the room over with the next lyrics...

I will never be able to say goodbye, but I may be able to handle a see ya later. I know it was no accident that we both ended up in Flat 35. I won't argue whether it was fate or a higher being or sheer dumb luck (I mean, we all know who I am...) because I'm just over the moon that I met her and shared this experience with someone so special, who gets me so well.
The memories we have are some I will treasure until I die: pulling Guinness pints in Dublin, exploring countless castles in Scotland, climbing Dundee law, trying to have sleepovers with her dinosaur breathing in my ear, collecting seashells at Broughty Ferry, getting caught in the hugest downpour on the way back from shopping for the Valentine's Day Party, avoiding the Union like the plague (until the very end), doing it for the Doritos, LWTAF, eating every two hours whether we need to or not, getting caught in the shower during fire drills, using LOL in vocal sentences, trading in life lemons for lemonheads, going weeks without shaving our legs, trying to pass notes through the wall, ankle flashing, popping Vitamin D pills like candy because we miss the sun, only peeing for free, pink post-it notes on my mirror, and general merriment.
Don't go, Nat. A Very Lucky Girl's Scotland won't be the same without you.