Happy Birthday Beaks!

At one point in time, Sara lobbied for today’s date to be a national holiday, but that was before she turned 21. (That was a birthday to remember!) Today is Sara Beckman Alexander’s birthday, so she gets a post of her own.

The first time I met Sara I knew I was going to like her immediately. I met her during the chaos of move-in during our freshman year at Bradley University. She lived two doors down from me on the top floor of the crappiest dorm on campus. Our RA lived between us and let me tell you we were in trouble for being too loud five days out of seven. Anyway, as we were all cramming our stuff into our incredibly small, non-air conditioned, cinder block rooms, I noticed Sara had a set of golf clubs.

Not only was Sara a golfer, she was on the BU golf team. I was--and still--am impressed! After a couple of days living in Heitz Hall, I quickly figured out Sara and I had more in common. She had as many hair ribbons as me and her love of plaid equaled mine. It wasn’t long after that that I found we had the same sense of humor and could laugh with-and at-each other for hours.

I joined Sigma Kappa freshman year and Sara joined as a sophomore. After that, it was hard to separate us, and sometimes tell us apart. We often joked we shared a brain, and to this day often finish each other’s sentences. We’ve always believed we should have our own talk show, but few other people think we’re as funny as we do! Look for us on YouTube one of these days.

Sara or “Beckman” or “Beaker,” and I lived together the majority of our time at BU and loved every minute of it. We were the proud recipients of the “Cleanest Room Award,” while we lived in the sorority house! Ha! We were incredibly anal, and everyone knew it and made idle threats to destroy our room. Our senior year we moved to an off campus with Steph, and another girl. It was so much fun and I can still hear feet clomping up the steps and our creaky screen door swinging open. The place was a dump, but we couldn’t have been happier.

I got to know Sara’s fun parents pretty well too, and her mom became my go to gal for gourmet recipes. You cannot beat Janelle Beckman’s French onion soup! Sara’s dad is hilarious and is such a proud father of his only child. They are wonderful people who raised a great daughter.

The day we all left Bradley was one of the hardest days of my life. I knew we were off to lead separate lives and there would be no more eating Rice-A-Roni on the couch in our family room, no more light night chats, silly pranks, or lazy Sundays spent in plaid flannel pants and oversized SK sweatshirts. It was awful and Sara and I stood on the sidewalk sobbing until we forced ourselves to head out on life’s path.

When it came time to choose a maid of honor, I couldn’t choose between Sara and Jennifer, so I had two. Sara took two days off work and came to Indy and did things like vacuum my stairs and organize everyone on my wedding day. She was a peach, and never complained.

I can’t tell you how much I treasure Sara’s friendship. I would give this woman my kidney and only remind her of my sacrifice for a few days. God knew what he was doing when he put us in the dorm that horrified our parents. With that, a very Happy Birthday Beaker!

The above picture is to prove to all that Steph did in fact wear a dress to her wedding.

Sara with her husband, Matt. Matt and Brandon are so much alike it's scary! I guess it takes a special kind of man to put up with girls like us. :)