Three friends, all different grades, the order of graduating is 2022, 2023, and me, the baby, 2024. The year 2021 Irulan (Ary), Jaime, and I all became best friends. We became friends through cheer and school. We spent all of the next 2 years together. Out of these 2 years when Ary became a senior, it was hard for me and Jaime to even comprehend Ary being gone. She was undecided on where she wanted to go for a while but then she finally decided to go to Carnegie Mellon University. We were so proud of her and her accomplishments. Jaime and I had been praying she wouldn’t go too far, and she was only going 2 hours away. School was coming to; an end that Jaime and I watched as our best friend graduate high school so proud. We knew she was leaving but we knew we still had summer to look forward to. We spent all the summer together, on the lake, sleepovers, breakfast dates, we did it all. Then August came and Ary left for college, and Jaime and I were devastated. We missed her so much; she came home some but not a lot and Jaime and I were also in school so there wasn’t a lot of time to visit.
Even though Jaime and I missed her we still had each other in school. Jaime and I were still best friends throughout the year, we ate lunch every single day together, and were always doing other hobbies together. Then the time came for Jaime to look at schools and see where she wanted to go. The end of the school year came, and I watched another one of my best friends walk across the stage and graduate high school. Sitting there was so sad and exciting at the same time. It was so hard because she was leaving and Ary had already left, and I was being “left behind” in a way. Jaime chose to go to Duquesne and that is 15 min away from where Ary goes to school. We all spent all summer together and then Ary and I had to say bye to Jaime. It was so hard. We were in the Walmart parking lot crying and hugging and trying to say goodbye. She got in her car and drove away and then she left for college at 5am the next morning. A week after that Ary left for college. Then I was left here all by myself for a whole other year without my best friends.
It has been a little over a month since Jaime and Ary left. It is an adjustment not getting to talk to them every day because we are all so busy with school. I talked to Jaime about how the adjustment has been for her and she said that it is a very big adjustment not being with her friends and family. Ary, on the other hand, did not have a very big adjustment because she is a very independent girl and was very busy with schoolwork. This year she grew used to going to college, so it wasn’t hard for her.
These past 3 to 4 years have been hard, fun, happy, sad and so many more emotions, but I wouldn’t trade my best friends for the world!
