So, I thought it'd be cool to start off with having two separate posts of how we met and became best friends, "the story of us." While the accounts are bound to be extremely similar, I am sure each of us remember different details.
August of 2002, my mom and dad drive me the three hours to Longwood University and help move me into the 4th floor of South Ruffner. After a tear-filled goodbye, I begin to get settled on my own and meet the girls on my hall. The first evening there, my RA called a meeting for all of us in the common room at the end of the hallway. This is where Hollee Elizabeth Higbea and I were formally introduced. The RA went on to tell us about the rules of the dorm (dry dorm, no drinking, no alcohol in the building, and do NOT come home drunk.) I had a friend from high school who was in a fraternity at Longwood so I went out with him that night. This is where our stories will differ...I'm not sure how we both ended up at the Alpha Sig house across from the church, but we did. Here is where we took the first Keek & Hollz pic, and maybe one of the greatest. We hung out there, had the best first night of college ever, then we returned to the dorm, already breaking a rule, you can guess which one. I proceeded to get "locked" out of my room and had a fit of getting into it...when the RA came out in the hallway and Hollee ducked into her room to continue laughing at me in hiding.
Freshman year went on and we hung out in a big group of girls, we went out all the time, hung out with different sororities and frats/soccer players, had breakfast, lunch and dinner in dhall together, and had pretty much all our Comm. Studies classes together. That year it was just a coincidence we had classes together...from then on, we made sure of it. While we hung out all the time Freshman year and became fairly close, our actual best friend status didn't arise until Sophomore year. We lived in a 6 person suite in Frazer with a bunch of our close friends from our hall in S. Ruffner. I had broken my ankle almost right before we came back to school and I was in a cast with a "no toe touches the ground" policy for 3 months. While our other friends were helpful, Hollee took the reigns of my crippled life and took care of me like only a best friend could. She pushed my wheelchair, got my tray in dhall and rode on the golf cart to class with me. Putting vodka in our orange juice bottles and heading to Art History class at 9 am, our friendship-and maybe our drinks;)- grew stronger everyday. We pulled all nighters to finish projects and papers, we cheered on our suitemates at LipSync when they all pledged sororities and we didn't. We hung out with our three best friends, Pam, Ange and Katie and we had a BLAST that year. Then came our sorority recruitment together...when I was given a bid from Zeta and Hollee was not. It was devastating and I knew how she felt. But, being who she is, Hollee was SO excited for me and was my biggest support system during my pledge period. Even though we couldn't spend that much time together when I was pledging, I don't have any memory of being less close or missing each other. Not to mention the fact that we had pretty much all our classes together AND we worked in Public Relations together too.
Junior year we planned to live together in Cunningham, we were so so excited and had pretty much planned out our whole year...until that summer when I got a call saying I had to live on the Zeta Hall. Now, while this was something I definitely wanted to do, I just wasn't ready yet. My best friend wasn't a Zeta and that meant we couldn't live together...that was not okay with me. After much turmoil, our living arrangements were changed and things worked out okay. I loved living with my pledge sister and the experience of living on the hall is like nothing you could imagine. And Hollee got lucky with a random roommate transfer, Megan, who she became very close with. Then, in the Fall of 2004, Hollee got a bid from Zeta!!! It was the most nerve wracking recruitment I was ever involved with, but it ended the best way possible, me getting to share that sisterhood with my best best friend. Shirting Hollee at walk is one of my all time favorite memories. So, Hollee became a baby bunny and I supported her as she did for me when I was pledging. As if we couldn't have gotten any closer, I finally got to share the Zeta secrets with the other half of my life. Plus, Hollee moved onto the hall second semester! So really we only had one semester of college when we were across campus from each other. We finished out junior year enjoying the greatness that is Zeta Tau Alpha.
Senior year...ah, one of the best. We lived in Stanley Park, 803B. We had two other roommates, but our rooms were connected. I don't really know how to explain our friendship, other than that it just works. We get each other on every level possible. It is odd to think that we spent 18 years without being in each others lives, because it feels like she's been there all along. Sometimes we know what the other is thinking or feeling before we know it ourselves. And even from 300 miles away, we make each other laugh, we know how to interpret a text message just by the way it's written, we are there through hard times and put the phrase "always just a phone call away" to good use.
There is so much more I could tell you about Hollee, about us...but that's what this blog is for, right? Right. So enjoy having a little insight into the life that is Keek & Hollz.
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