Courtney Robinson '13, a metadata manager at The Walt Disney Company living in Los Angeles, California, and Erika Wood '12, a senior instructional systems specialist with the Department of Homeland Security living in Fredericksburg, Virginia, attended the same high school but they weren’t friends at the time. That changed at Old Dominion University.
“Erika started at ODU the year prior, and she was the only person I knew when I started at ODU the year after,” Robinson said. “So, I reached out to her to hang out and the rest was history.”
Wood said a close friend had left ODU after the first semester of her freshman year, leaving Wood a little homesick. “When Courtney reached out in the spring saying she’d be there in the fall, it was a welcome surprise,” she said.
Robinson called Wood “a ray of sunshine.”
“She lights up any room she walks in,” said Robinson, who studied communications. “She is a very caring person — beautiful inside and out — and she loves the people closest to her in her life.”
Wood, who has a degree in interdisciplinary studies, said her friend “has a heart of gold and will stand 10 toes down for the ones she loves.”
“Courtney is an intelligent, beautiful friend whose light shines in the world,” Wood said.
The attributes they admire most in each other:
Robinson: Erika is vibrant, fearless and witty. She is unapologetically herself.
Wood: Courtney is confident, determined and caring.
The moment they realized they were best friends:
Robinson: We weirdly kept wearing similar outfits when we saw each other with no planning. It was always hilarious to us, but we called each other “best friend” from that point.
Wood: We shared many of the same crazy experiences and had very similar likes and dislikes. We are two peas in a pod!
Fondest ODU memory:
Robinson: We used to go to the gym and play racquetball. We had no experience at all, but we just enjoyed laughing at ourselves attempting to play.
Wood: There were too many to count! But the funniest was when we were in the library studying for finals when a guy in a banana costume was being chased by a gorilla. They ran all over the library, and it was the most random, funniest thing.
A recent time they saw each other:
They met over the holidays in 2023. Their parents’ houses are about 20 minutes away from each other in Stafford, Virginia, so Robinson and Wood always make plans to see each other when Robinson is in town.
How they’ve maintained their friendship over the years:
Robinson: We make sure we see each other no matter how busy we are. There's never been a point, whether we lived in different states or the same state, where we’ve lost contact since college. Our friendship isn't forced; we can pick up exactly where we left off every time.
Wood: We make time for each other. Whether it’s a quick text to check-in or a phone call, we make sure we are there for one another.