“Ouachita was always our playground. We used it for walks, or games, or playing tag with the neighbors’ kids. I remember coming up and riding around the plaza when we were little, picking up acorns and putting them into a bucket on the back of my sister’s tricycle.”
For Stephanie Westberg, a senior elementary education major from Arkadelphia, that same playground has served as her home for the past four years. You can find her most days in the commons around lunchtime, eating a corn tortilla with turkey and bacon, an apple, a banana and a gluten-free Pop Tart.
After a long day of classes, Westberg drives or makes the trek past Moses-Provine, up North Fourth Street and takes a left onto Cherry Street. Instead of spending time trying to find a parking spot outside of Gosser, she is greeted by the smell of her mom’s home cooking. Rather than watching the latest episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” with her suite, she knocks out some homework and enjoys a bit of quality time with her family.
“I’d always dreamed of having my own dorm room, but I chose not to move into the dorms my freshman year because, in addition to not having a meal plan due to my extensive food allergies, doing so would save my family about $6,000 a year,” Westberg said. “As a freshman I would see other students on campus with their suite or roommate, and part of me wished that I had someone like that as my go-to buddy to hang out with. But I knew people like Abby Root coming into college, so I had friends to hang out with. I just had to be a little more intentional in initiating that.”
In fact, the hardest part about living at home wasn’t connecting with others at Ouachita, but rather it was balancing her home life with her newfound college experience.
“It was really difficult the first two years with Sierra [her sister] still being in high school because she expected me to still be there for her at her marching band performances. But on Friday nights I didn’t want to go to a high school football game; I wanted to be with my friends,” Westberg said. “It was difficult drawing the line between living in the same house, but being in a different stage of life.”
While living at home was initially a challenge, it also provided Westberg with an opportunity to earn trust from her parents and strengthen her relationships with them and her sister. Over time, she received fewer late night texts from her mom concerning when she was coming home, and more asking her what time she wanted to eat dinner. And at the start of Westberg’s junior year, Sierra began her freshman year at Ouachita. Like her sister, Sierra chose to live at home.
“The people you live with are the hardest to love. Your roommate sees the best and worst of you, but living at home, my entire family sees the best and worst of me, which has its positives but also its negatives,” Westberg said. “But I am thankful for the time I’ve had with my family, and being able to go home and talk through situations with them has been great. While they’re only a phone call away, sometimes it’s nice to have that face-to-face interaction.”
Through her ministry involvement over the past few summers, Westberg has made up for any Ouachita resident life experiences she may have missed out on. Her summer after freshman year was spent living with 22 girls in one room at church camp, which was followed by another summer with 18 girls in the same situation. Last summer, she lived and worked with 10 girls as a missionary at the Mission Centers of Houston.
“As I have matured, I have fully come to realize that Stephanie and a whole lot of girls in one area is not a good idea,” Westberg said. “My personality isn’t the same as most girls. I’m a direct person. If I have a problem with you, I’m going to tell you, and that isn’t always the best thing. Living with girls in the summer has grown me in many ways, but it also makes me thankful that I only have to live with my sister instead of a whole floor of girls.”
A major benefit of living at home for Westberg is that her transition to college wasn’t as scary as it could have been. However, unlike most students, she wasn’t afforded the opportunity to plug into a new community or a new environment, and it is because of this that she is eagerly anticipating what lies ahead.
“This sounds terrible, but I’m looking forward to moving away because I’ve lived here for almost 22 years,” Westberg said. “I love Arkadelphia. I see the value in Arkadelphia, my church family and my friends, but I’m excited to be in a new place, at a new time, in a new season, where I’m not going to be the daughter of Scott and Pam or the sister of Sierra and Stephen. I’m just going to be Stephanie.”
– By Evan Wheatley, Features Editor
