These friendships may prove lifelong (10/03/07)

It was Sally's freshman year. We'd arrived in Bloomington with a carload of her stuff, preparing to help her move in.

Like any parents of a kid going off to college, we were apprehensive and worried about what sort of roommate she would end up with.

Hauling her stuff up to her room in Forrest, we opened the door to see that her roommate had already arrived.

And, almost instantly, there was some reassurance.

Sally had brought an Apple Powerbook to IU.

So had her roommate.

Now, given the fact that Apple amounted to about three percent of the retail computer market in America at that point, it struck us as a good sign that both of them were in that three percent.

They may be out of the mainstream, we figured, but at least they're out of it together.

More reassurance came later when we met Elyse and her parents.

She and Sally hit it off immediately, and one of those things that parents of college-going students worry about was set off to the side.

We were even more reassured several weeks later when both families had dinner together during Parents' Weekend.

The major league baseball playoffs were under way, and we quickly discovered that both families were baseball fans.

The fact that Elyse's mother is the ultimate Yankees fan while Sally is big on the Red Sox didn't matter. That could be set aside.

What was remarkable was that, in addition to the Apple connection, we were dealing with two girls who had been brought up enjoying baseball.

Within a few months, the circle expanded.

And by sophomore year, another roommate - Julia - had settled in.

The three roomed together in junior year, and they're rooming together this fall in an off-campus apartment.

Are they alike? Yes and no.

Sally's a Russian major. Elyse is a violinist and a music education major. Julia is a vocal music major and just made her debut appearance with the IU Opera last weekend. (Sally's musical performance skills are limited to performing "Funky Town" on the keyboards, thanks to way too much practice.)

But on some level, they simply fit together.

Saturday night we had dinner with Julia's parents, went to "Rigoletto" together, and celebrated her debut.

Sunday morning, having breakfast on the courthouse square in Bloomington the day after the performance, we found ourselves wondering about this wonderful friendship.

And maybe we found some answers.

All three young women come from intact families. That is, their moms and dads have been moms and dads together since the beginning.

And all three couples met in college - eons ago -getting to know one another in their 20s before committing to a lifetime together.

Does that matter?

I'll let you be the judge of that.

I'll just say that if I had to make a prediction, I'd predict that these three will be friends for the rest of their lives.[[In-content Ad]]