Four Girls

Four girls, from four states, with four names, live in D104 at Vanguard Center.

A burnt orange “home sweet home” sign with a pumpkin on it hangs on the outside of our door. Twinkling lights from Chinatown drip across our window panes with jelly hearts scattered on the glass. A glowing bunch of red chili lights dangles above the oven. A table for four sits with a centerpiece including the following items: white leaf salt and pepper shakers, a cinnamon sugar holder in the form of a mole sitting in a lemon, colored jars, and a green journal underneath a mason jar filled with daisies. A giant homemade monthly calendar is loaded with stickers and foam circles for each date, where “moments to be remembered” are scripted with permanent markers. The rugged cabinets hold 64 mugs from all over the world. The antique frame wall is filled with pictures, crosses, and a California license plate from the nineties with the inscription, “YES 4GOD”.

Coming home is my favorite part of the day.

A blue and white Navajo blanket lies across our couch facing the black and white framed wall with our giant HDTV box in the center. The movies on repeat include: Beaches, Going the Distance, The Holiday, It’s Complicated, and the classic Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat on VHS. This elderly couch may sink down in the center, it may have a million of those ratty knots you have to pick off, and it may only fit four people, but it does its job well.

Stories are told on that couch. This is the spot where dramatic, tear-filled, laughter erupting tales are shared at the end of each of these four girls’ days. As I sit on this couch on the first day of a new month, I think about how each of our stories came together. The ways in which our lives intertwined is quite the legend to tell.

Little Red is a theater major from Hobbs, New Mexico. She was the first person to call me from Vanguard. She worked in the admissions office and was calling prospective students. I spent my first year at another college, and was looking to transfer to VU for my major. She invited me to Pre-VU during our hour-long conversation over the phone. We became instant friends. Three years later, I was picking her up from Fiumicino Airport in Roma, where we would spend the greatest Thanksgiving week together in Italy. She’s my roommate and best friend today.

Little Blue Eyes is a music major from Baltimore, Maryland. She is the only girl I remember from Pre-VU when I visited. She also was looking to transfer in and was the only brave soul who asked a question during student panel. We met when we were both in the same new student orientation group and on the same floor in Catalina Hall that fall. During our first conversation we discovered we both were from big cities and we both had four siblings. We will be seeing Florence and the Machine together in April up in Santa Barbara with some good friends, of which I am stoked about. She has been my roommate for two years and is my best friend today.

Little Brown-haired Beauty is a business major from Moses Lake, Washington. She was my neighbor that first semester I transferred. Having transferred in herself, we both share an appreciation for second chances. We both have a tendency to save every sentimental note, gift, or thing from any person in our lives. We went on a missions trip together in Mexico with HATB (Hands Across the Border) over Spring Break our first March at Vanguard. Her heart for missions and compassion for any kind of animal is a quality I admire. She rescued our blue Betta fish, named “The Duke” from being homeless. He swims near our couch. She has been my roommate for two years and is my best friend today.

You never know how your relationships will form here at Vanguard. Each has their own story and their own purpose in your life. We four are all in our final semester of college living off campus. There is a sense of freedom and adulthood that is found by living here. Our humble abode is lively and wild. It is our safe place to create, think, and pray. We may not be a part of those rallies on campus anymore, or midnight breakfasts in the Caf, or even know all those new students. But, each of our lasting friendships were discovered on campus, at those events, and in those dorms.

As Brooke Fraser says in her song, Here’s to You, “Cheers to the friendships well worn in, the time nor distance alter”.

~Olivia Grace

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