Tiffany, Ashley, and Erica Greer all have different plans, different stories, and different lives. But when it came to deciding on college, their answers matched seamlessly.
Natives to Virginia, the Greers come from a family of five children and two travel-impassioned parents. The Greer sisters said they knew BYU–Hawaii was the school for them.
Erica Greer, the youngest sibling and twin to Ashley, is a freshman exercise science major with a minor in special education. “[My happiest moment was] finding out I was going to college with my two sisters,” said Erica. “We were sitting at our house. We had applied for early admission, all of us, and it had been months since we’d heard.”
“My dad sat us down at the couch and was acting like we weren’t going to get in,” said Ashley Greer, a freshman accounting major and middle sister, “but then he tricked us and we all got in and we were all so happy.”
The sisters are no strangers to travel and foreign places. Growing up, they spent a lot of their time in the car, on road trips with their family, and eventually were able to visit all 50 states of America.
“We’re a very tight family,” said Tiffany Greer, the oldest sister, and a freshman studying education with a minor in social work. “Definitely the type of family I want to have some day.” The three of them spend the majority of their weekends and meals together and said people always recognize they are related.
“It’s actually kind of fun,” said Erica, “because we’ll walk by and people will ask us, ‘Are you twins? Are you triplets?’ People honestly stop us and tell us how we all look alike.”
The sisters all live in Hale 7, with their rooms directly aligned from the top floor to the bottom. “It is so much fun having them here because you’re never really alone,” said Erica.
“I like it because you’re never homesick,” said Ashley.
But there are some downsides, said Ashley. “One of the disadvantages is never leaving home because of the annoyances of living with each other are always still there,” she said.
“At some points, you know, I just want to be by myself, have my me time,” said Tiffany. “But sometimes it’s nice when I’m feeling really crappy, I just need to talk to my sisters, and I can go straight down to their rooms.”
Tiffany has plans to get her master’s degree in family and consumer sciences education, “get married, have kids, live a happy life, and travel the world.”
Ashley said family road trips are one of her favorite parts about growing up a Greer sister, and especially loved it when her older brother, Brandon, was in the car. “He just made it so much more fun because he’s a crazy guy and makes us laugh a lot,” she said. He gets home from his mission on the Sept. 15 and plans to attend BYUH starting Winter Semester.
Ashley is planning on getting her master’s degree in accounting and maybe becoming a Zumba instructor on the side. “I want to have lots and lots of children and be strong in the gospel and be happy and serve a mission.”
After a difficult issue in her childhood, her twin and youngest sister, Erica also said they revere the power of a tight-knit family and being strong in the gospel.
“I had a hearing issue. I had fluid behind my ears so I couldn’t hear very well, which caused me to not be able to talk very well,” said Erica. “And so socially I was behind. I wasn’t able to make friends because I couldn’t communicate and eventually I went to a doctor, and they figured out what it was and they drained it. Then I had to go to speech therapy and group therapy to learn how to make friends and to keep up and everything.”
Erica said her mom was the one who helped her through it all. “My sisters were in school, but my mom was the one who would work on the cards with me, and she was the one who helped put me in therapy and she did her best to communicate with me,” she said. “Ashley usually always got what I was saying though because I couldn’t really talk but she would get my messages.”
From this experience and later opportunities in which she was able to work with children with disabilities, Erica chose her future career path. “It makes me want to work with kids,” she said. “I want to get my master’s degree in occupational therapy, and I want to minor in special education and hopefully end up working at a hospital or at a school with kids with disabilities or with people in general and helping them get better and heal.”
Despite their different plans and goals, the three sisters all agreed when hard times come, there are two things they can rely on.
“I think keeping Heavenly Father and the gospel in mind, everything else will follow,” said Erica.
“Going on a mission was definitely the hardest thing that I’ve ever done in my whole entire life,” said Tiffany.
“I came home after six months because I got really sick and something that really helped me through that was my family. My parents were so supportive ... and my family was there for me when I got really sick with depression. I was in misery and I was in this huge pit and I just felt like there was no way out. Being able to get help and being able to overcome it took a lot. I’m still overcoming it, but I didn’t let it push me back anymore. I clung to the gospel, the iron rod, and kept pushing forward through everything and Jesus Christ definitely helped me with that.”
Ashley said, “I am also so grateful for the gospel and also for my parents and their ability to have us all three here and soon four. I think it’s great having sisters here. Wouldn’t have it any other way.”