2017 – Present

Firsts in friendship, love, and motherhood

by Maria Roberts

It's Halloween 2017. I have been at RPI working in the Rensselaer Union now for about 6 months. I like it so far, but I'm a 24 year old in a new city without too many friends around. These years can be lonely. You're barely an adult, but you're inching further away from that safety net of your college group of friends and everyone is in new places. There is a new employee starting in the Mueller Center who is around my age. I invite her to lunch at Terra Cafe over in EMPAC to get to know her better. I told her that actually my wedding was that Saturday so I will be gone for about a week for that but I will see her again when I get back. When I got back from my honeymoon, she was engaged! We spent many lunches from there giggling and chatting about life, love, and eventually motherhood as we navigated our precious 20 something years as coworkers. It's hard to think of a day I haven't talked to Lauren Arnoff since we became instant friends that day. Since then, we have never wavered in our support for one another growing up and climbing the RPI ranks as well. Now, as new moms and 30 somethings we are raising our kids with each other's support and I can honestly say it's hard to imagine life without so many of my RPI friends in it. Lauren was one of those first friends and she will be one for life.