Today (for a little longer) is my best friend Audra’s birthday. Audra is so awesome I just wanted to write a little about her in honor of the anniversary of her birth.
I met Audra my freshman year of college–probably the first week I was there or so. She lived on my dorm floor and I think I may have met her at our first 11th floor meeting. I learned around that time that she was a Baptist, and that appealed to me as another evangelical girl. I remember thinking that I should try to be get to know her so I could have a good Christian friend. However, we didn’t become friends right away, but were more like friendly acquaintances for the first couple years.
Toward the end of my freshman year I started hanging out more at the BSU (Baptist Student Union) where Audra was also a member. But I still didn’t realize at that time how much of a kindred spirit she was. The turning point was this crazy random event. After two years in our dorm with my first roommate (another wonderful girl named Ellen who is still a dear friend–Hi, Ellen!), I had to find a new roomie because Ellen and I couldn’t agree on which dorm to live in. I was bummed to lose my great roommate but went to take my chances getting into the dorm I chose. As I was waiting in line to see what I’d get, I found I was behind Audra and another girl named Jessica. They were hoping to get a triple room with another friend, Jen, who was away for a semester in London at the time. Then they found out the triples were no longer available. They turned around, saw me, and asked me if I wanted to go in on a quad room with them. I agreed, and the rest was history. I’m not sure if I got those details 100% right, but that’s the basic story. So, I ended up with a brand new roommate–at least someone I knew.
We made our plans and I went back home for Texas for the summer. When I came back I got to know Audra (and my other roomies) and we bonded right away. I don’t remember when we bonded, just that it happened.
Here are some of the fun (and mostly silly) things Audra and I did together:
- drove out late one night in crazy outfits and took pictures of ourselves all over town in odd places.
- went out and sang karaoke with our friends.
- took trips to Nashville (when my dad lived there for a while). On one trip we saw Kevin Max Smith of Christian band DC talk sing hip cover songs at a little cafe in Brentwood. Then he sat by me and I was frozen in shyness. We also went to the club Rocketown just to use the bathroom. OK, that doesn’t sound very cool , but we had fun.
- went on various BSU trips, though we often hung out with other people on the trips instead of each other–just to get to know more people.
- sneaked out of the dorm without telling anyone to drive to visit a friend in Kentucky. Originally we wanted to visit a monastery in Kentucky, but found out we couldn’t really have a tour, so we went to see this dude Adam instead. Road trips were a big favorite of ours.
- sang stuff like Van Halen’s “Jump” out the open windows of my car with shy younger BSU members in the backseat
- went on numerous trips with the BSU choir (it was called Heavenbound, believe it or not) trips as well as revival teams to tiny little rural Missouri churches.
- our first semester we lived in a very sad dungeon room with no window (but it was a quad, connected by a little hall to a room that at least had a window–though that one was at ground level with a slope up a hill). We decided that we’d spent too much of that semester focused on naps, snacks, and email. We decided to change our lives the next semester and focus on bread, BSU, basketball, and books (and maybe boys–can’t remember). The bread meant healthy food, I think.
- sat stuffed on a couch in the main dorm lounge with other casual friends with the door open and a blanket over us watching “Must See TV” particularly Friends.
- walked around the dorm wrapped up in blankets acting like aliens and talking funny (don’t remember why but I swear we didn’t use drugs).
- along with some other friends, stole this dude Cliff’s carpet right off his floor, then deposited it in his Geo Metro.
- we stayed up much too late chatting in our bunk bed (Audra was always on the top bunk and I had the bottom bunk. We also played a game as we were trying to go to sleep where we would just mention random pictures we saw in our heads.
- we were also in each other’s weddings. I was Audra’s maid of honor and I tried my darndest not to cry all over my bouquet when she got married. Then she was in my wedding (would have been my matron of honor except I have one blood sister who had that spot).
- she visited me in both Haarlem and London and we had big fun touring around together.
- she also visited me here–what a great friend–now I know I owe her a couple visits.
OK, that’s enough reminiscing–I could go on and on but now I want to talk about what I love about Audra.
- she’s very intelligent.
- I mean really, she’s smart and witty.
- she’s someone I can talk to endlessly–our conversation flows beautifully–lots of give and take.
- she’s very caring for other people, for the world at large as well as her friends.
- she doesn’t just live her life–she considers the larger picture–how she affects the environment, how others interact (she was a sociology major, in fact), how economics and politics affect life locally and worldwide.
- in spite of this brainyness and larger worldview, she can be silly and fun and adventurous.
- she makes me a more interesting and fun person when we’re together.
- she stays in touch, even though we’ve both moved a lot since leaving college. Even if we didn’t stay in touch, she’s the kind of person I think I could pick right up with again after years.
- she’s a real spiritual searcher. She doesn’t take her beliefs for granted, but questions and researches and pushes, but also has a genuine interest in who Christ is and how to love like him–she has a Master’s degree in Theology as well. Isn’t she great?
- she has a cool musician husband who is laidback and also easy to talk to.
- she’s got a little boy who is so cute and smart and sweet that I wish he could be around my kids (and she’s got a bun in the oven).
- she likes me. Hey, that’s worth something to me.
Really, Audra has been a big influence on my life. I love her to bits and she’s such a dear friend. I also look up to her, which is kind of funny considering we’re the same age. So, happy birthday, Audra and I hope you have a wonderful year to come.
Edited to add: I forgot to mention that Audra is really funny as well. She’s very good at improv–she could totally rock that “Whose Line Is it Anyway?” show.
