Its been about almost a decade since my best friends and our group solidified into what it is today.
We all met in middle school, although we never went to the same school (Some public, some private, some i think never went to school; looking at you Dan) but we all knew home base was at Loyola Circle where we would go when we could and get into some really weird shenanigans that set the tone for our young lives. I’m talking car rides that resulted in the weirdest dance that no one understands, friendly’s and Bertuccis trips, and when we wanted to we always got out to Ihop for late night breakfast. It was the best times we could ask for.
Even on the roughest days for someone in the group, we stood there waiting to help at a moments notice. As college approached, none of us went the same ways; I went north to Merrimack College and others went to Providence, Northwestern, Boston University, Harvard, Northeastern, Saint Michael’s College and so on and so on.
As the years grew on, we realized what we had was a good, stable foundation at home and never realized what we had until we told our college friends stories of our group from back home. We spent holidays together, including the infamous NYE parties, went out on the town now that we were all over 21. It felt like a renewal of what this group of misfits from the same area in Boston meant to us, especially me.
As you are probably reading this, you know your own group of kids you hang out with on a regular, or at least the ones you used to hang out with. This group of yours may have changed over the years, adopting new members and losing a few in the same process but its still that favorite group of friends that you look forward to when Thanksgiving rolls around and the new year is around the corner. These are the friends that you have gone hell and back with, put up with your bs, and still like you for the way you make them laugh, or can be the rock of the group (Especially when everyone wants ketchup, no on speaks up until you do 😉 ). THIS is the group of friends that you want at your wedding getting plastered with you to a middle school jam that you all love.
These are the people that our high school teachers said to always keep in contact with because they are the people who care about you the most and who you care about the most.
The headliner photo was the first year we were (mostly) all out of college and “enjoying” the adult life. We decided to have a “Friends-giving” and it felt like high school all over again. The Friday nights that we spent doing nothing and the years we wondered about the future all came rushing back to us in that instant. It was great to see even after all these years we still had the idea that after time apart we could get together for dinner and drinks and make us feel like the awkward high school kids we were. I just hope for the rest of time we get to stay together it is as fun if not better than what we have already experienced.
Awkward n' Adulting 