Lauren & Grace

Playfulness and childlike wonder are a couple of the hallmarks of Portfolio Center, so it makes sense that our own small-world stories--as many as there are--never cease to amaze us. Take, for instance, the tale of Lauren and Grace, two current design students, whose interesting history has recently come to light.

The girls were born in 1984, in the same hospital in Spartanburg, South Carolina--Lauren in January, and Grace, February. Their moms bumped into each other while strolling the new babies down the quiet, wooded street they lived on and became fast friends. The women put their daughters in the same neighborhood play group and then into the same small day school.

The two families couldn't have been more different: Grace's mom was very, very laid back. She lived by her own set of rules, didn't like schedules. She never got worked up and never yelled at her kids. Lauren's family sat on the other end of the spectrum. Her dad was an organizer who prided himself on his filing abilities. Lauren maintains that if asked, he can find receipts for anything he's bought in the last 10 years. Her mom wasn't as obsessive with organization, but she was extremely strict. School work came before anything else.

The kids carpooled, with Lauren's mom taking them in the morning and Grace's picking them up in the afternoon, and the family differences played out vividly during the morning routine, which went like this, according to Lauren:

My mom would arrive about five or ten minutes early, because no matter what time we got there, Grace and her sister were never ready! Eventually, Grace and her sister Renee would come running out to the car--shoes in one hand, backpacks open, with papers falling out. Grace's face was always wet because she wouldn't take the time to dry it. Sometimes Renee would still have her toothbrush. Their mom would come behind them with whatever they forgot, including their breakfast. Then on the way to school, they would proceed to get dressed and finish their homework.

Lauren and Grace were as different from one another as their families were. Lauren was studious and, she confesses, obsessed with being popular (something she failed to achieve, she adds). She was also fighting a secret and exhausting battle with OCD. In stark contrast, Grace was easy-going and unconcerned with her grades or what people thought about her. (She also dressed like a hippy and wore her hair in dreadlocks.) Interestingly enough, when the invitations were passed out for the coveted senior girls' sorority, it was Grace who was asked to join, not Lauren. And oddly, too, this was when the two girls became closest. Lauren explains:

We were in AP art together and wound up getting really involved with it. You know how art is, when you get into it--a 50 minute class period really isn't enough. So the two of us started eating lunch in there together, along with our art teacher, who was a petite 60-year-old man who air-punctuated everything he said with his paint brush. I don't think it could have been a more dorky combination of people, but we adored him, and I was happier than I had been--ever. 10th, 11th, and 12th grade were my worst years, as far as the OCD. I was taking all of those AP classes, and I had a job at the YMCA as a lifeguard every other day from 4:50 a.m. to 7:30 before school. I was so messed up that if I had even a few minutes of downtime, I would start acting crazy. During my senior year, I really could have used a study period instead of an extra class, but I stayed in art because my time with Grace had become so important to me. She was the only person that I was really able to talk to about anything.

Grace and Lauren and their boyfriends double-dated for the senior prom (photo above), and the girls graduated together, but then they went their separate ways for college. They drifted apart during those years, as each girl tried to find her identity and purpose. Here is Grace's account of what happened next:

Lauren went to Furman and I went to College of Charleston. We didn't really talk in those four years. I think we were just caught up in the whole college experience--new city, new friends. Once we took a walk through the neighborhood over Christmas break and did a little catching up, but we didn't really know what was going on in the other person's life. I remember she told me she was studying biology. I was always switching my major, I think because I was denying what I really should have been studying--art. My senior year, I was so sad and confused about what I should do with my life, because I really wanted to do something creative, but I just didn't know how.

Grace wasn't the only one confused. Lauren recalls:

I went to Furman University in Greenville, where I was a Biology major. I wanted to be a doctor. My first semester, I took the regular intro classes, plus one in biology, and then, to balance out my schedule, I took an art class. It was in that class that I learned what graphic design was. It was sort of ridiculous--that I didn't know about design being an actual field. But after that discovery, I switched majors. And to think! The only reason that I took art in high school was so that I could hang out with Grace. And without having that background in art, I probably would have never taken any art classes at Furman!

When Lauren graduated, one of her teachers suggested she look into Portfolio Center, and she ended up enrolling. About halfway through her first quarter here, she got a call from her mother, who explained that Grace had just called to get Lauren's phone number, because she'd heard Lauren was in Atlanta (where Grace said she would be soon, attending a school called Portfolio Center) and wanted to know what Lauren was up to. Lauren's mom made her promise to act surprised when Grace called.

Grace recalls the first time they actually saw each other at Portfolio Center:

I was first quarter and just really freaking out about all the assignments that Sylvia had given us. I called Lauren, asking a bunch of questions about the class, and she told me to come over. She showed me the hundred thumbnails she did and gave me lots of grey paper for my poster.

Now the two friends work on their projects constantly, and when most students go out on the weekends, they opt to stay home. Lauren likes having Grace around while she's working, because, as she says, she sometimes gets a little nutty (the OCD thing) when she's alone. And Grace understands that Lauren needs someone to simply be a quiet presence in the room. So they work together silently until one of them needs feedback, for which their different styles and approaches to the work make them good critics for each other.

The girls, as young adults, are closer than they've ever been, and more alike--in their passion for art, sense of discipline and drive, and desire to create work that is meaningful--than they are unalike.

Grace says she's begging Lauren to stick around another quarter until she too graduates, but Lauren's looking even further ahead: "I would love for us to wind up near each other in the professional world."