Fate brought us together 10 years ago (!) this August: My freshman year I shared a dorm room with Jennifer, lived next door to Christi and Becca, and Leslie was across the hall. Thank you, BYU housing. I don't think I could have found better friends.
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| Becca, where are you?? |
Every time we are all in Utah, we try to get together. We aren't the best at keeping in touch in [besides Facebook] but when we get together we fall right back into things like nothing has changed. I love that. After spending an evening together - talking for hours and hours until we realized it was past midnight - I drove home thinking about how lucky I am to have those kinds of relationships.
Obviously in the 10 years since I met them, I've made other friends. [kind of!] But friends you make as a married adult are different than the friends you make when you're 18 with a meal plan and the world at your fingertips. The relationships you have when you live together are different than if you only see each other a few times a week. Because we've already seen the good, bad, and ugly (cue break-ups, meltdowns, bad hair days/weeks, stress, major life decisions, etc) we can just relax and be ourselves.
And since I can't relive that time in my life and make more friends like these, I'll just enjoy them when I can and take a trip down memory lane!
Here we are in Chipman Hall. Home sweet home.
The first time I met Leslie, I think I told her that her window [overlooking the central grassy area] would be a great place to be serenaded. She smiled and said, "Oh good. Did you have anyone in mind?" I'm glad she didn't judge me. And I didn't judge her for all the pairs of pointy toed heels she brought with her to college. We were fast friends, enjoying a crazy semester of Freshman English together.
My first impression of Becca was that she was boy crazy. In fact, that's all she could talk about for the first few weeks of school. She was the social coordinator and loved any reason to call the guys in our ward (on our dorm phones!). She even planned Christi's 18th birthday party a few weeks after we all arrived. I initially thought Christi was crazy because she spent all her time studying physical science in the hopes of testing out of the class. In the process, she missed all of the fun! Then she tested out of the class and got to gloat whenever we complained about an upcoming test. Whenever I wanted to talk about life's deep mysteries, Christi was my go-to friend.
Jennifer was quiet, and studied way more than the rest of us. I was jealous because she already had her life plan mapped out. Who knows they want to be an accountant on day 1 of college? And then actually follows through with the plan? She is missing in most of our pictures because she was at the library, but always tried to sneak away for a few minutes to join us and relax before getting back to the grind. She was the best roommate I had in college.
Even at our ward opening social, we knew we wanted to be friends. I don't think we even socialized with the rest of the ward. And just because this picture below makes me laugh.... once Ben called, and Leslie answered and said, "Hello my love! Would you like to talk to your girlfriend?" Oh, Leslie...
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| For the record, that's a mint oreo shake... yummmmm |
After out first year of college, we went our separate ways for the summer: California, Washington, Colorado, Kentucky and Utah. We all called each other to talk about how excited we were to get back to BYU. And notably, Christi got a boyfriend (who is now her husband!)
When fall rolled around, we all lived together in the Regency, which we thought felt like a convent because it was girls only, and we never got asked on dates. It was a year full of really good and really bad times. We learned that sometimes it's best not to all live together, or at least not to do it in a dingy apartment with 6 girls. Regardless, we had a great Halloween/birthday party when Leslie turned 20, and many other celebrations throughout the year.
Jennifer came back from a semester in China, and we celebrated!
We visited Jennifer's family cabin in Utah, and took a trip to Leslie's family cabin in Colorado. And because we missed being freshman, we occasionally went back to the Cannon Center and ate our hearts out.
For Junior year, we all were in the same ward, but living in different apartments. Leslie and I lived together in Middle Cambridge. With only 4 girls/apartment, life was muuuuch better. (And cleaner.) We continued our tradition of having a girls night during the Priesthood session of General Conference.
And then our paths kind of split. I was leaving on a mission. Jennifer and Christi were both getting married. So we had one last hurrah before heading our own ways.
I think the next time we were all together was at my wedding! Because when I got back to BYU after my mission, Christi was married (with a baby!) living in Sandy; Leslie was on a mission; Jennifer and her husband were both accountants in Colorado; and Becca I still saw all the time.
Right after the wedding, Hyrum and I moved off to Ohio for my job, so I didn't see these girls for a year and a half! When I went to Utah for Christmas in 2011 we all met up. Except Becca had to work. So she's sadly missing from all of our "recent" pictures.
And most recently, we got together a few times at Christi's house. Last minute Jennifer ended up coming to town, so within a few hours we were reunited... with all of our kids! I can't believe that between us we have 7 kids! (Mostly thanks to Christi and Jennifer.)
I hope several years down the road I'll be able to post many more of these "reunion" pictures, where we all look the same, but have more children. I wish we lived closer, because it would be nice to have these kinds of friends living next door, but I'll take what I can get. And with Christi's husband joining the Army, I have hopes that maybe someday my wish will come true.
