Each semester, a new group of college students eagerlyanticipates graduating from college and moving on to the next stepin life. Often times though, those fresh graduates don't stop tothink of all they are leaving behind.
It's like that for senior Crystal Meeks of the women's crosscountry team. She moved in with teammates Jill Scully, SarahHuddleston, Linda Stebbins and Aubrey Gaffer at the beginning ofthis year. The other four have been living together for a littleover a year now.
Meeks views the whole team, not just the one's she lives with,as family. That's shown through the way the five interact withinthe house and the fun they have.
"Yeah we go on runs together, but we also have a deeperrelationship then just teammates: we're friends," Meeks said.
When talking about how the house is run, Scully said, "We allhave little mother jobs." For example, Meeks makes sure people eatand she also cleans the most.
Like all good families, they have times when everyone on theteam gets together. They celebrate birthdays as a team, have pastaparties the night before a meet and often the whole team comes overon Sundays just to hang out. Members of the house also bake cookiestogether with great frequency.
This year's busy schedules, however, make quality time spenttogether hard to come by. Scully said they tend to see each otherthe must during practice or at meets.
"Sometimes that's the time to catch up," Stebbins said,referring to runs and long bus rides.
At some point during they day, however, they all end up togetherin their living room watching TV or socializing in some otherway.
Whenever they do get together, they will normally end up turningthe stereo up loud and dancing or watching their favorite movie,"Old School."
"Pretty much our stories are all about us dancing and jumping onthe furniture and just being weird," Meeks said.
While dancing seems to be the most common activity they allparticipate in, they all enjoy watching soap operas and that servesas their conversation topics during easy runs, Scully said.
When it comes to eating in the house, each takes care of herselfunless someone volunteers to cook for everyone. They also have acleaning system, but it hasn't worked very well so far. Normallyone person starts cleaning and the rest join in.
Everyone also seems to join in when someone wants to go for icecream or go shopping. Stebbins said she spends more money shoppingbecause of that.
It's those little moments together that make the team seem likea family, Meeks said. For Meeks, who will graduate in May, it'shard to think about moving out and moving on.
"I don't know how I'll live without these guys."
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