Spotlight: Erika!

Erika is one of my very best friends, and even though I'm 5 years out of college, she's still one of "the roommates" (You'll hopefully get to meet them all in this series!).

Dutchman Day - Freshman Year (2005)

Erika was randomly placed in the room across the hall from me in my freshman dorm.  She had been at school early because she was in marching band, and what I remember about those first few weeks of school is that she was ALWAYS saying hi to people.  We assumed they were band people, but then we asked her "How do you know them?"  "Playfair," she'd say.  Playfair was this BIG getting-to-know-you game type thing that our college did with all the freshman.  You had to play stupid games in this big gym with the entire class like "Find someone who has 3 siblings and then link arms with them and walk around the room meeting other people".  You know, stuff like that.  You never actually met people at Playfair!  You just tried to get through it with your dignity while talking to strangers about random stuff.  But Erika met people.  And remembered them enough to know their names and say hi to them on the sidewalk weeks later.  Because she's just like that.  Sweet, friendly, and everyone wanted to know her.

Dutchman Day Sophomore Year (With Kristen, another roommate we love!)

Erika is one of those amazing people that is so good at so many different things that she has a hard time deciding what she wants to do with her life.  She's just too good and too interested in too many things!  She went to a teeny, tiny high school in a teeny, tiny town and she probably did every extracurricular activity that was offered there.  Before going to college, she was torn between doing meteorology at Penn State, or music at our school.  That's how varied her interests are.  Thank goodness she decided to go with music, or I never would have known her.  She loves learning new things.  Junior year of college, she came back after the summer with an accordian.  She just wanted to learn it.  And she really did.  She practiced in the apartment.  And it was awesome.

Graduation 2008

Currently she's working as a director at a local news station in Central PA, and she's going to school for Court Reporting.  And she's awesome at both of those things.

Erika, me, and Kristen at Emily's (another roommate we love!) wedding  - 2011

She's also getting married next year!  Yay for Erika and Scott!

I can't imagine a world without my Erika.  So, I walk and raise money for a world without breast cancer, so that she's not the 1 in 8 of women I know and love.  I walk 60 miles to keep my dear, sweet friend and the world gets to keep the girl who's interested in everything and excels in everything!

Kristen, Erika, me, and Emily at my wedding - 2012

You might know Erika, or know someone as awesome as her.  If you thought of losing someone that awesome scares you, let's work together to erase that fear.  Please consider making a donation today in honor of my sweet friend Erika.

Not sure how much to donate?  Here are some numbers that are important to Erika's life:

$28 donation - In honor of her birthday on 2/8!

$36 donation - In honor of her future wedding date (Kinda...9+27, it's a stretch!)

$310 donation - In honor of the room she lived in when we met!

$86 donation - In honor of the year she was born!

$26 donation - In honor of the night she got engaged in November!  Don't worry, Erika, I don't know that by heart, I had to look through old emails :-)

$100 donation - In honor of the "hundreds" of Gilmore Girls episodes we've watched while we should have been studying.