Editor, Daily Nexus,

This past August, I moved into a house with three other girls I had never met. Wanting to make new friends as an entering transfer student at UCSB, I reluctantly answered a “roommate wanted” poster taped to the women’s bathroom paper towel dispenser at Santa Barbara City College, which I was then attending. I met the girls at Starbucks in Isla Vista, where they each questioned me about typical roommate concerns: cleanliness, chores and – of course – the extent of my social life. A couple days later, one of the girls called my cell phone and informed me I could move in at the end of August.

I still remember the first time I met Bri. I had moved in two weeks earlier when I heard a knock on the door, and upon opening it, a small girl with a big smile adjusted her chin over a brown moving box to see me. She said, “Hi Brittany! I’m Bri.” From the time we moved into our little house on Sabado Tarde to the time we left for Winter Break, our house was filled with laughter, dirty dishes and Britney Spears dance parties.

I will never forget Jan. 20. Sometimes I find myself stuck in it… stuck in that moment when I heard the news, stuck in that space where I was told. In my mind I still envision Bri in her black sweatpants and Ugg boots. I still think about the way she would say my name through a yawn in the morning. I remember the night she made sure we got all the right ingredients to make mojitos – even if it meant going to two different stores because one didn’t carry mint leaves.

Bri’s Facebook page, under favorite quotes, reads, “To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.” To our house, and to the people who knew her, Bri was our friend. She was a part of our lives. She was part of our world.

With this letter, I would like to honor our roommate, our friend, Brianna Denison. Tell her that we love her and think about her all the time. Tell her she is more than just a memory. Tell her she will never be forgotten.
BRITTANY CASTANOS