I am extremely lucky to go to college with my best friend in the whole world. My closest and dearest friend from high school, Hannah, is an acting major in the School of Theatre (over in CFA). While I applied early decision to BU, Hannah went through an audition process and didn’t commit until late April. 18-year-old Claudia had no idea she’d be this lucky. In high school, Hannah and I had a radio show called Broadwaves. We exclusively played showtunes and talked about all things theatre. When we were 16, we somehow got to interview (it still baffles me) the Editor-in-Chief of Broadway.com, Paul Wontorek. This show only strengthened our friendship and we ended up bringing Broadwaves to WTBU in 2015.
Fast-forward to Orientation Summer 2014. Hannah and I planned it perfectly and we were in the same session and Common Ground group. Little did we know we would meet our best friends during the Liquid Fun show at Rhett’s Night Out. I was sitting next to fellow CA (and my future roommate/BFF) Jen Masi and Hannah was with her future roommate and bestie Sophie Gore. That was that beginning of some pretty strong college friendships, but also the start of the BU era of Claudia and Hannah.
We have known each other since sophomore year of high school. For those of you who love numbers.. Our friendship started a little over six years ago back in SEPTEMBER 2011!!! That is a LONG. TIME. AGO. And here we are. Seniors in college. Getting ready to graduate. Our friendship has moved from Chicago to Boston and beyond to London and Florence. Best friendship is finding time to see each other even when you are in different countries. I got to see Hannah speak Italian in Florence and we explored Notting Hill together in London (so we are basically Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant).
Hannah and I have never lived together (if you exclude the random month I spent in her apartment last summer). We used to joke about it being a disaster because of our opposite schedules. Even though we didn’t share a tiny double in Warren or West, we still made time for each other. Whether it was DJing on WTBU, going to lobster night, or seeing Hannah perform (or her acting in my projects), we made it work. Even as our lives got busier, and sophomore, junior and now senior year have rolled around, we were still Hannah and Claudia. Even better, we got to meet people outside our respective schools. While I love my COM bubble, I am so grateful for the friendships I have made with those SOT kids. So thank you Hannah.. to not only introducing me to some amazing people, but also helping me cast all my future films *wink*
There are a lot of things you can pull out of this friendship tale: going to college with your best friend from home is a great thing, making friends outside your school at BU is a great thing, or finding time to see your best friend even when school and life get in the way is a great thing. Reflecting back on all of this as a senior in college is telling me a lot of things, but most important is find friends who make change fun and easy. Having Hannah in my life made the transition to college a whole lot easier, but that wasn’t the only benefit. Anytime there has been a big change in either of our lives, we can always count on each other to be there. College is about those long lasting friendships and I can’t believe that my best friend from high school turned into my best friend from BU. Over the past three years, I’ve learned change never stops, but your friends will make any transition a lot easier and will always support you through those changes.
Here are some pictures of me and Hannah throughout the years!
