Many middle school friend groups don’t survive the transition into high school. For many students, friendships that once felt permanent slowly fade into occasional texts or quick waves in the hallway. For seven students who attended St. Mary’s, that never happened. 

Quinn Bukaty, Ryan Edwards, Bridget Lucier, Fitz Knight, Elise Mancuso, Cormac McEwen, and Justin Meneely go to three different high schools now, years after graduating from the eighth grade together. Their friendship remains just as strong, but it has not been easy. 

“The biggest challenge was everyone having different schedules, sports, and school friends, so it was harder to see each other as often,” said junior Cormac McEwen at Loyola Academy.

Despite that, the group continues to stay connected. 

“What’s kept the group together is that we all make an effort to stay in touch and actually want to keep the friendship going,” said McEwen. 

The friendship among the seven students didn’t start in middle school—it started much earlier. 

“I think because we have not only been together through eighth grade, but we’ve been together since we were in preschool, has made our bond that much stronger,” said junior Quinn Bukaty.

Growing up together created a backbone for their friendship that has lasted through the challenges and distance high school brings. 

“We’ve been through the hardest things in our lives together, and we’ve always had each other’s backs,” said Bukaty. “They honestly feel more like family than friends.” 

Fitz Knight—a junior at Lake Forest Academy— one moment from eighth grade that still stands out to him as a key moment for their friendship, is their Washington D.C. trip.  

“We spent two days with our entire grade,” said Knight. “But it seemed that for those two days we all really gravitated towards each other and started to get more and more comfortable with each other—that got even stronger at the end of the year after the trip.”

Even before high school, it was obvious their friend group had a special connection. Bukaty said even their eighth-grade English teacher, Mrs. Tazioli, noticed it. 

“She told us that out of all the groups of kids she’d ever met in her 40 years of teaching, there was something special between our group because she could feel the love between us,” said Bukaty. “There was this one day in English where we were all laughing so much together, and we couldn’t even focus on work. She had to take us outside to run around the playground in eighth grade. She used to call us our own little family.” 

When high school began, the biggest challenge was simply not seeing each other every day. 

“We don’t see each other as much as we used to, because we were going to school every day together,” said Bukaty. “I would say we’ve grown so much more, because distance makes the heart grow fonder.”

Sometimes the group worried that their friendship wouldn’t last through attending three different high schools. 

“I was definitely scared and thought that things weren’t going to work out because there was a period for a couple of months where the group chat was dead,” said Bukaty. 

Every time they feel the distance between them growing, they remember they are more than just middle school friends. They are family. 

“When all of us still made time to hang out and talk even after going to different schools, it showed it was more than just a school friendship,” said Knight.

Whenever they meet up again, the dynamic always returns. 

“Sometimes it feels like we all have different lives at our schools, but when we meet up, it’s like nothing really changed,” said McEwen. 

Knight said that they’ve even started spending more time with each other’s friends from different schools.

“In the start, we definitely lived different lives with the exception of us hanging out,” said Knight. “But I would say in the past year we have been able to hang out more with our friends from school and our friend group.”

Still, the core friendship hasn’t changed. 

“Everyone has matured and gotten busier with school and activities, but the group still feels the same when we’re all together,” said McEwen.

For Bukaty, the feeling of the group is what kept it so strong. 

“When I’m with them, I never leave feeling bad about myself,” said Bukaty. “I always leave having a good feeling about myself and we just have so much love for each other that I never feel judged by them.”

Even when looking into the future, Knight believes the group will continue to stay connected. 

“If we have kept the group going this far into high school, when multiple people are going to different schools, college will be no different except that we will have to text more than hang out in person,” said Knight.

The love behind their friendship even stands out to the people around them. Their parents said they have enjoyed watching the seven of them become a family while growing up. 

“It is amazing to see these kids remain such great friends even though they go to different high schools and have totally different social calendars,” said Shawn Edwards. “Their friendship, based in faith, has survived the test of time. I know that they will continue to be there for each other for many years to come.” 

Even though they now spend most of their days at different schools, the “St. Mary’s friend group” continues to prove that some friendships can withstand the test of time.