I sat down today to eat lunch at the Jug 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 embraced them both in tight hugs, and we all planned to meet up again before they graduated in just 31 short days.

I met Skyllarr, Brooke, Haley, Jayla, and Eli last August through a mutual class schedule. What started as a group text coversation to discuss our class assignments and homework broke out in a full-out downward spiral into what we call "The Harry Potter Cult."

We all met in person a couple of months ago and watched the first Harry Potter movie since Eli had never seen them. 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 lone Hufflepuff.

I have never been a person to make friends easily or hang out with anyone outside of school, so this was such a great feeling to me to actually have friends who cared about me and actually wanted to spend time with me.

Now we have just 31 days left together to squeeze in as much time as we can.

Of the six of us, half of us will be graduating.

Brooke plans to attend the police academy in July, and upon graduation from the academy plans to join the Hamilton County Sherriff's office and work her way up to a detective. Brooke and I have talked every single day through Snapchat and sending TikTok videos back and forth since shortly after we met. Of the three graduating, she will be the closest to me.

Haley plans to go to school for two years to become a certified anesthesia assistant after graduation. She is attempting to get into a school in Florida (which I know she will, she's incredibly smart) and said we were welcome anytime.

Jayla plans to either go to a mortuary science school in Detroit or grad school in Toledo, where she is from. She would like to either work in the funeral industry, working with the FBI or human resources at a big company so she can travel a lot. Jayla says she is 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 up and only half of us can come in person at a time. Luckily, our last names are close enough, and Haley and Jayla carpool so that we got to spend a couple of labs together.

I don't really know how to put my feelings into words. It doesn't feel like two of my friends will move hours away and the other won't be in any classes with me anymore. I don't think it's really set in yet.

I have 31 days for it to set in. To see them again before they leave. I'm a hugging type of person, so they'll be getting plenty of hugs before they leave. I will look back on these memories we've made, laughs we have had, pictures we have taken, moments we have captured, and always smile and remember them fondly.

To Jayla, Haley, and Brooke: I know you guys are reading this, as you gave me permission to write about you, and I will miss you dearly. 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 us step into the night, and pursue that flighty temptress adventure."

"I think we've outgrown full-time education...Time to test our talents in the real world, d'ya reckon?"

"We do not need magic to transform the world. We carry all the power we need in ourselves already."