I went for lunch at the Jug today with two of my friends after our last lab together. We sat, talked, laughed, ate delicious greasy food and at the end I was reminded that this was one of my last days with them. I hugged them both in tight hugs, and we all planned to meet again before graduating in just 31 short days.
I met Skyllarr, Brooke, Haley, Jayla and Eli last August through a reciprocal class schedule. What started as a group text to discuss our class assignments and homework erupted into a full-blown downward spiral in what we call “The Harry Potter Cult.”
We all met in person a few months ago and watched the first Harry Potter movie since Eli had never seen it. We all wore our house colors too! We got together, stuffed ourselves with delicious food, decorated Harry Potter cookies and laughed.
Just so you know, Jayla and I are Ravenclaw, Brooke, Eli, AND Skyllarr are Slytherin, and poor Haley is our only Hufflepuff.
I’ve never been one to easily make friends or hang out with anyone outside of school, so this was such an amazing feeling for me to have really friends who cared about me and really wanted to spend time with me.
Now we only have 31 days together to squeeze in as much time as possible.
Half of the six of us will graduate.
Brooke plans to start police academy in July and after graduation, she wants to work for the Hamilton County Sheriff and work her way up to a detective. Brooke and I have been chatting on Snapchat every day and sending TikTok videos back and forth since shortly after we met. Of the three who graduate, she will be closest to me.
Haley plans to attend school for two years to become a certified nurse anesthetist after graduation. She’s trying to get into a school in Florida (which I’m sure she’s incredibly smart) and said we were always welcome.
Jayla plans to either attend a mortuary science school in Detroit or graduate school in Toledo, where she comes from. She would like to work in the funeral industry, the FBI or human resources at a large company so that she can travel a lot. Jayla says she’s a mess, but she’s our mess and we love her.
I am currently in CHM 121 with Jayla and Haley, and due to COVID our class had to be split and only half of us can come in person at a time. Luckily our last name is close enough, and Haley and Jayla carpool so we can spend a few labs together.
I don’t really know how to put my feelings into words. It doesn’t feel like two of my friends will go away for hours and the other one won’t be in my class anymore. I don’t think it’s really there yet.
I have 31 days before it starts. To see them again before they leave. I am a cuddle type so they will get lots of cuddles before they leave. I will look back on these memories we made, the laughs we had, the pictures we took, the moments we captured, and I will always smile and remember them.
To Jayla, Haley and Brooke: I know you are reading this because you have given me permission to write about you, and I will miss you very much. I love you all, and I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.
I leave you with these three Harry Potter-inspired quotes:
“Let’s go into the night and pursue that fleeting seducer adventure.”
“I think we’ve outgrown full-time education… Time to test our talents in the real world, do you think?”
“We don’t need magic to transform the world. We carry all the power we need already within ourselves.”