Quincy senior roommates SAMUEL GRAHAM-FELSEN ’03 (left), CHRISTOPHER ROMA-AGVANIAN ’02-’03 (center) and KIERAN FITZGERALD ’03 reflect on their years at Harvard.

A witty Californian future politician who revolutionized the Quincy Grille. An often-elusive lover of theater and Irish verse. A soft-spoken director and musician from Ohio. A die-hard Celtics fan who hopes to right injustice through documentary film. A thrill-seeking Bostonian who spent a summer investigating the patterns of Dominican migration. A government concentrator who wants to understand race relations. An aspiring human rights lawyer from England. A musician with a passion for linguistics who makes sushi and memorizes Beatles trivia.

This is the story of eight seniors—Justin A. Erlich ’03, Kieran Fitzgerald ’03, Anthony J. Gabriele ’03, Samuel Graham-Felsen ’03 Christopher Roma-Agvanian ’02-’03, Aaron R.S. Rudenstine ’03, Daniel J. Stewart ’03 and Nicholas Z. Topjian ’03

These roommates have created their own lingo, briefly owned a balcony hot tub and lobbied successfully for the wall connecting their suites to be knocked down and replaced with a door. Their collected stories span the globe—from riding camelback together in Morocco, to sitting on top of a speeding bus in Haiti to living in a 300-year-old hut in Japan.

They met as first-years through a series of coincidences. Sam, Daniel and Justin all lived in Canaday. Chris and Sam grew up together. Kieran, Anthony and Nick lived together in Mower, and Kieran met Aaron during the First-Year Outdoor Program.

At first glance, they do not necessarily appear compatible. Justin favors shorts and tank tops, for instance, while Daniel tends toward khakis, leather shoes and sweaters. Kieran often wears a tweed cap and Chris might sport two earrings and a Red Sox jersey.

The work for a photography project covers Anthony’s walls. Aaron’s walls feature photographs of his trip to Nepal, and his own photos of a birthday trip to Foxwoods. Tatami mats cover the floor of Nick’s single, while Sam’s bookshelf includes Marx and Howard Zinn.

From the housing preference form they filled out more than four years ago, these eight have moved beyond differences and disagreements to find friendship in shared humor, politics and intellectual aspirations.

“Everyone does have their own interests, but it’s the overlap that keeps us connected,” Aaron says.

‘Such A Reality’

It’s Thursday afternoon. The senior talent show is scheduled for 8 p.m., and the roommates just got an e-mail telling them that their band, called “The Joke,” is on the program.

Nick, Kieran and Anthony started playing guitar together the night they moved into their Mower triple four years ago. Kieran had grown up playing classical piano, but Nick taught him how to play the guitar.

Their musical tastes intersected in what Anthony describes as a “folksy rock” and soon a room ritual evolved—a nighttime order of Tommy’s pizza followed by hours of guitar-playing.

“It was the most lounge-like social epicenter I’ve seen here,” Kieran says of his first-year suite. “Ultimately, it was a way for all of us to relate. Everyone else had to deal with conversation, but we had music.”

They named their band “Silas,” after a high school friend of Kieran’s. They always wanted to find another name, Kieran says, but none of the options—which included “The Well-Hungarians”—stuck.

While the band didn’t last beyond sophomore year, as Anthony and Kieran became gradually busier with their work in Harvard theater, music continued to tie this group together.