A Tale of Four Roommates
Sharing apartments leads to sharing lives
by Kayla Smith (’07)
In 2004, Angie (Bastian) Fairbanks (’07) was looking to find roommates for sophomore year. During her search, she visited the director of residence life at the time, Cullen Green. “Cullen was like a matchmaker really,” Angie says. After asking Angie about her personality, hobbies, and interests, he decided to place her in an apartment with Jessica (Shurtleff) Ballard (’07, MPC ’13), a Resident Advisor (RA) in Behken Hall.
Angie and Jessica hit it off, and the next year, two became three when they added Alissa (Christensen) Dicke (’07) to the mix. Alissa and Jessica knew each other from high school, and after a long interview over dinner at Shaw, it seemed like a natural fit. As they entered their third year at Westminster, they found the final member of the team, Megan (Hoskins) Maybee (’06). The four soon became so close they even got family photos together.
“We got them done at Target,” Angie recalls. “We framed them and hung them in the living room of our apartment in Stock,” Alissa adds.
Reminiscing over Facebook video chat, Angie, Jessica, Alissa, and Megan recount the memories of time together in college and beyond: telling stories of cheeseburgers lost to Emigration Creek, cars stolen from the street behind Stock Hall, and sneaking out on the second-floor balcony of Behnken when Jessica (the RA) was gone for spring break. These memories have them laughing so hard they begin crying.
“We can’t think of just one favorite story because we’ve been such a big part of each other’s lives,” Megan says as she scrolls through photos on her phone. “All my photos from college are of us four together.”
Since graduation, the four have gone separate ways, but they still remain a support system for each other. Through graduation, marriage, job changes, births, divorces, and cross-country moves, their memories from Westminster have bound them together.
“We were all so close, but all so different and on different paths,” Jessica says. “But, when we get together or talk to each other, it is like we’ve never been apart. It’s just like in college.”
“Aside from getting an education, my goal for college was to make lifelong friends,” Angie says. Nearly a decade since graduating, it appears Angie achieved that goal.
About the Westminster Review
The Westminster Review is Westminster University’s bi-annual alumni magazine that is distributed to alumni and community members. Each issue aims to keep alumni updated on campus current events and highlights the accomplishments of current students, professors, and Westminster alum.
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