On a Monday night at 6:30 p.m. sharp you’ll find six girls gathered around the coffee table in an upstairs apartment on Main Street or sitting around the big circle table in another apartment on Elm Street.  

They’ll be sharing stories about their day, playing music, sharing a meal with some wine, and of course they will be sorting out their highs, their lows, and their buffaloes (Don’t fret, I’ll explain later). 

I met Hadley and Reilly freshman year of college. 

Scratch that—I knew Hadley in high school. But we didn’t officially meet until college.  

When sophomore year rolled around, (and) I was randomly paired with Reilly, Hadley, and Hannah as roommates. But we didn’t become close friends until junior year.  

Now enter Sya and Abby.  

We all lived together in Wheeler before Sya, Reilly and I studied abroad.  

I remember us all having such a fear for the unknown future. It felt like we were just barely starting to get settled into our friendship and life together and now we were all being separated.  

This would be the last time we lived together.  

Flash forward six months and we were determined to keep our closeness. Abby and I signed the lease for our apartment on Elm and Sya, Hadley, and Reilly had theirs on Main.  

Hannah was tragically stuck in the dorms but she’s fine, she spends the majority of her time at the Main Street apartment anyway.  

We came up with a plan for weekly dinners pretty immediately. We wanted something to look forward to during the week and a set time to force us to all get together.  

We alternate hosting Family Dinner each week. Whichever apartment is hosting, the other will contribute a side dish or desert.  

However, this last week was an exception, we’re all pretty broke so we stole popcorn and had a movie night instead.  

Every Monday night, we meet at one of our places. If it’s at Reilly, Hadley, and Sya’s, then Abby will bring cupcakes, I’ll bring wine, and Hannah also contributes a little something.  

During dinner, I’ll usually propose we discuss our High, Low, Buffalo.  

It’s simple, the high is the high of your day (or week, or weekend, depending on how we feel). The low is the low of your day, and the buffalo is a like a wild card. You could share a fun fact or a silly story. It’s just something you’d like to share with the group.  

I cherish these Family Dinners with my friends. It’s one thing to stumble upon friendship due to forced proximity, but it’s another thing entirely to keep the friendship up after we pass the roommate stage.  

It all feels very adult, and it feels very purposeful. We’re actively making the choice to spend our last years of college together. And there’s no one else we’d rather do it with.  

Very recently I was so excited to get the hell out of Castleton, out of Vermont, out of the United States.  

But soon, life will never look like this again. We’ll being sharing our High, Low, Buffalo across text instead of the dinner table. We’ll send each other links to music videos and shared Spotify playlists instead of smooshing together on the old brown couch to watch them together.  

It’s so cliché but it really is funny how life works that way. We’re in such a rush for the Next Big Thing that we forget to cherish the moments we’re in.  

I’m so relieved my friends and I all slowed down to share a meal and a chat before we can no longer do that.