As Spring Break approaches, students are all thinking about vacation, sleeping in, hanging out with friends, and most importantly no homework. Meanwhile, for seniors, Spring Break on the way only means so little time before they graduate. Spring Break and summer might be the only time some of these students will ever see each other again.
Growing up you never imagine leaving all the friends and classmates you grew up with and were so close with. College makes it tough to keep friendships with everyone being so busy. For our seniors, time is flying fast and passing them by. Some are wishing it could speed up while others are wanting it to slow down. Happy to get out of the crowded halls vs wanting to stay in the only place they have ever truly known.
Finley Manna and Lauren Amodei are two seniors who are very lucky. Finley and Lauren are getting to dorm together at the same college. The same dream every set of best friends had growing up is now becoming reality for these two.
Finley and Lauren have been best friends since they were in preschool (13 years) which for students now is a very long time. Long lasting friendships are hard to find but Finley and Lauren have stuck together. Lauren and Finley say they met and became friends through church where they had their first commune together and their parents had been friends as well.
With being friends for 13 years you make so many amazing memories. Taking a trip down memory lane both girls shared their favorite memory. Lauren says hers was when they both camped in her backyard. “We camped in my backyard and went in the pool and set up a tent.” Finley says, “Mine was probably a couple years ago when we dyed our hair in her bathtub.” Both memories are simple and sweet but these girls will carry them forever.
Finley and Lauren will both be attending Lemoyne College and will be sharing a dorm room together. Finley knew from the beginning that she had always wanted to attend Lemoyne. Finley explained she wanted to attend Lemoyne because she fell in love with the campus and how pretty it was, how it was a good distance, and close to a bunch of good places – but Lauren was stuck at first. “I decided to go to Lemoyne because that was the best school for nursing and it was a place I was most comfortable at.” When Lauren decided she wanted to go to Lemyone, that’s essentially when the room situation worked out. “We both kind of figured that when we went to college we wanted to have our base person and were both going to the same school so we might as well room together because we knew it would work out.”
For some people rooming together and being together all the time sounds like a nightmare, but Finley and Lauren see no major issues knowing they are always together anyways. “A lot of the time especially in the summer it feels like we live together already and we’re very similar but there’s always going to be issues, it’s just whether or not you can work through them,” says Finley. Following up with Finley’s statement Lauren says, “ I don’t ever think there would be a severe issue probably like cleaning the sink or something we just gotta work through it.”
Both Lauren and Finley are majoring in nursing but for a while they were unsure if that’s what they wanted. Lauren said she was stuck between majoring in nursing and physical therapy. “There’s just so much you can do with it,” explains Finley. Furthering on why Finley chose nursing she explained “Right now nurses are really in need and also if you want to go back and be a nurse practitioner you can do that and it’s good money. I wanna be a traveling nurse so I can see places and figure out where I want to live.” There are many programs that Lemoyne provides for the nursing major. “We’re both doing the DDPN. It’s a four year program through St. Joes at upstate and the last year we can just work as a nurse part time while you’re finishing up everything,” explained by both girls.
Moving away from home and being away from your family can be scary for most people but Finley and Lauren aren’t as scared knowing they have each other. “I’m a little scared I’m going to miss being home but Lauren’s a little part of my home. It will be fine but I’m not worried about it.” Both girls explained that the things they will miss most are their family and friends along with their pets. For graduation both girls only hope for a good summer along with a good transition to college and to be in a good place when it starts.
Overall, both Lauren and Finley think their college life will be a balance of work but also so much fun. “I think that we’ll both have a good balance of school and having fun,” says Lauren. Finley jumps in, “That’s important especially because it’s like a big workload but also that’s your life. I think we will chill each other out too.” To conclude Lauren thinks they will take it seriously but need to be able to not only be in the book stuff.
