BYU recently relocated students in the College of Fine Arts and Communications to West Campus while demolition of the Harris Fine Arts Center — and construction of the new arts building — take place on the main campus.
The buildings at West Campus were originally Provo High School. While many students may be unfamiliar with the space, one trio of friends has been in that building for years.
Liliana Briem, Rebekah Campell-Harding and Marcus Harding first met in middle school as part of an advanced program where they were taking classes at Provo High School.
Then, they came for high school, took some art classes and joined an art-centered service group.
Now, they are all back in that same high school building — but they have returned as BYU students majoring in illustration. Two members of the group, Campbell-Harding and Harding, are now married.
“It looks a little different, so I think I forget sometimes, and then I’ll just be walking down the hallway, and I’ll be like, ‘Wow, I’ve been here for almost seven years now,’” Campbell-Harding said.
Coming back to the same campus takes some getting used to.
“When I first found out that we were coming here from the HFAC, I was like, ‘Oh, like, I’ll get used to it, it’ll be fine, it’ll feel really different,’” Briem said. “But I feel like I haven’t really gotten used to it and it kind of feels like I’m coming to high school every day. Part of it kind of feels like, ‘Oh my gosh I cannot get away.’”
“It’s weird being back here, after coming when I was 12, and still being here. Because in many ways I’m a very different person,” Harding said.
However, even though it’s weird to be back, this building at West Campus is a symbol of their friendship.
“When your friendship sticks, it just sticks. And we have more of a concrete reminder of that, being in this building every day that we’ve been in forever,” Briem said.
While some things in the building haven’t changed, it’s still growing with them and their relationships.
“You realize that, in these places, that they grow too. And now that we’re back, new memories are coming, and so it’s hard for me to remember this building as the high school,” Harding said. “I remember a lot of things there, but when I walk through it now, it’s not the high school anymore.”
These three said they had not planned on all coming back to West Campus, or even joining the same major at the same university.
Art is what brought them together and it’s one of many things that is keeping them together.
