Name: Lauren Albert
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Relationship to Jessica: Georgetown and post-college roommate
I’ve known Jess for 9 years. We met on our first day of college – she lived across the hall from me, and we were pretty much attached at the hip for the rest of college! We then moved to NYC together after college, and lived together until I moved to Boston in October of 2006.
Jess & Lauren in Mykonos, August 2009
© jessicafashano.com
Jess and I had been dreaming of going to Greece together for at least five years, and were finally able to make it happen with a few of our other girlfriends in August 2009. I was extremely excited to spend ten straight days with Jess, since we hadn’t had more than long weekends together since I moved to Boston. We were so truly happy on this trip and it was just like when we were roommates – getting ready together to go out on the town each night and staying up late chatting about nothing and everything in our room each night.
The above picture was taken on our first day in Mykonos, a very windy day! (I’m sure Jess was wondering if her hair looks ok!) My luggage was lost for the first couple days, so like the selfless friend Jess was when any of her friends was in need of help, Jess let me borrow her clothes and anything else I needed, so I’m wearing her dress here. Later in the trip she also helped hold my hair back when I got sea-sick on a 6-hour ferry, and I will always remember what a great friend she was for doing that! Of course she made a joke out of the situation, and had me laughing through it!
Jess was in love with life on this trip and I will always remember how happy and lively she was. After we stayed up late dancing and celebrating Greek-style each night, Jess would pop out of bed early the next morning before anyone else, and we’d find her rejuvenated and relaxed out by the pool reading a book, or on our deck planning our exciting agenda for the day, while guarding our breakfast from the crazy wild Greek kittens begging for food! She motivated us all to get up and get the most out of each day.
Jess’ fun, energetic and adventurous nature let loose on this trip and resulted in many hilarious memories, yet she was still the organized one with the great restaurant, beach and sight-seeing ideas, and was also still the motherly one that took care of each of us in different ways throughout the 10 days (and made sure we made our flights and reservations on time!) – basically she was everything to all of us.
After we got back from Greece, Jess would send us quotes, trip recaps, songs and photos for the next several months while still on the high from our trip. Once we all had our photos uploaded into our separate albums, Jess had wanted us to compile them into one “master” album. Unfortunately, we never got around to doing this while Jess was still here with us, so I made the slideshow below for Jess. Sorry this took so long, Jess, but I hope you like it – you are the shining star, just as you were on our trip!
Jess showed her true colors on this trip, and my wish is for all of us to carry her spirit on – she was always considerate with her heart, generous with her love and always made a point to have fun and find humor in everything. I love and miss you terribly, Jessbabes.
