College Takes Erin Far From Home

This year, eighteen year old Erin Nichole Zeider, decided she needed a change of scenery and came to Virginia for college, leaving her small hometown in Pennsylvania. Erin loved living in Reedsville, near State College. She would often avoid taking the interstate and instead drive downtown just so she could see everyone she knew. The only complaint she had about growing up in such a small town was the lack of things to do.

“I really loved living in my small town,” Erin said when asked about if she liked growing up in her hometown “It was really beautiful,” she added.

Erin had live in the same town since she was born on May 22, 1989 until she came to Virginia Tech. She is the youngest of the three girls in her family. When she was young her parents thought her the importance of trying your very best and about integrity. Erin describes her sisters and herself as being very obedient and polite when they were children.

When asked what Erin was like when she was younger, her oldest sister, Blair said she was a somewhat shy and sweet little girl. Blair also said that once Erin got to know you, you couldn’t get her to stop talking.

“She was also known to ham it up in front of the camera, we have too many home videos of her singing “Jingle Bells” at all times of the year,” Blair said

The Zeider family is very close. Jerry Zeider, Erin’s dad, works for a company called Brodart, which manufactures library furniture. Erin considers him as much of a friend to her as a dad. She says that they are both goofy and joke around a lot. They also like to go running together, which is a hobby of Erin’s. Erin’s mother, Susan Zeider, works with the parents and teachers of children with disabilities.

“My mom is very helpful and loving, though she sometimes tents to smother me, but she is still a great mom,” Erin said.

Erin is especially close to her sister Blair who is over eight years older than her. She looks up to her and admires the things she has accomplished. Both sisters say they rarely fought when they were younger. Today Erin looks to Blair for advice.

“When she was really little, she looked up to me as some kind of ideal teenager, I know because she has told me so,” Blair said when asked about their relationship.

In her youth Erin had a big imagination and was very creative. Her sister, Blair, recalls her sister doing many crafts when she was small. Blair still has many of the things she made. Also, Erin’s best friend of twelve years, Anne Williams remember playing a game called “Kenneth and Albert” when they were younger. In the game, which was created by the two girls, Erin was Kenneth and Anne was Albert. The girls would go on adventures in Erin’s back yard. Usually the game involved a ship and a storm.

“One time Erin got her foot stuck between the bars on the playground set and she cried and her mom had to help her get it out,” Anne recalled about their adventures in the back yard.

Erin attended the same high school, Indian Valley High School, in her hometown from the ninth grade until she graduated. She loved her school because of the wonderful school spirit. At school Erin had some really close friends but also said that she was friends with almost everyone. Her senior class voted her most likely to brighten you day because she is a goofball.

When Erin was in high school, her friends and she hung out at each other’s houses a lot. Usually they hung out at her friend Curtis’s house, where they played ping pong and just hung out. In the summer they enjoyed going swimming. They also went to local baseball and basketball game and played their own backyard sports.

In high school Erin had a boyfriend named Seth. They were really good friends before they started dating and then dated for over a year. Erin describes Seth as smart and funny. She says she cared a lot about him and they are still good friends to this day. After that, during her senior year, Erin casually dated a guy named Marcus who had a mohawk. He was like the school mascot and always got the crowd pumped up.

“I went with him to a few dances and stuff, but it was really relaxed,” Erin said about Marcus.

Also in high school, Erin played on the Field Hockey team for all four years and loved it. Today she misses her teammates. The team was pretty good, usually winning the district tournament and playing well in states. One time at camp, a friend of Erin’s pulled Erin’s pants down in front of a big crowd. She was embarrassed but also thought it was funny and laughed it off. Also, last summer when Erin was playing field hockey, she ran into another girl, both girls had concussions, but Erin had to get sixteen stitches in her head. All her hard work in Field Hockey paid off because she was the team captain her senior year and received the “True Warrior” award, which was given out to the player who works the hardest and inspires the team.

Erin considers her biggest accomplish, in life so far, to be how much she enjoys everyday and takes nothing for granted. She tries to live each day to its fullest and not regret anything.

“If I did it, then it made me who I am today,” Erin commented on her approach to living life without regrets.

In seven years Erin will either be working or finishing some kind of graduate school. She is very independent and will not let anything stand in the way of her accomplishing her goals. Maybe she will become a scientist, park ranger, or a special environmentalist.

“I think she will be very successful in whatever she does,” her sister Blair commented when asked about Erin’s future. “Hopefully she will live close to me,” she added, which would take Erin back to her home state of Pennsylvania.