I've known Sylvie since elementary school. She was this cute girl in oversized tees and basketball shorts and hung out with the cool kids. Twelve years later, I saw her name in a facebook group for pharmacy school and asked her to be my roommate.

And she said yes! :')

We were those roommates who didn’t need to be around each other all the time but would always be there for one another. She would pop into my room every now and again and ask if I wanted to go on a Marshalls run or go to yoga or the gym. We ate together (in our apartment) in our sports bras and underwear. Also she had a cute kitty who always ran away to my room to lie in the sun so.. honestly can't ask for a better friend than that.

Diane is probably the best boss and partner you could ever have. I would have never known 5 years ago that when I was assigned the CVS store in College Park that I would be able to work with someone so knowledgeable, understanding and funny. I felt like I was working with a best friend who regularly brought me food. She makes me aspire to, one day, be as amazing of a mom as she is and maybe have half the amount of energy she has on a regular basis. How you manage to start your day at 4am with a workout on no coffee is just plain absurd.

Anyways, even though we no longer work together on the regular, I know she'll always be there for me and one day, if we get really bored of what we're doing, I'm still down to opening up our Jamaican/Asian restaurant/bakery.

I met Eileen when she started working as a pharmacy technician at CVS. She was one of the most hardworking and dependable coworkers I’ve had and reminded me a lot of myself. Maybe that’s why we got along so well. She would laugh at all the silly things I said and made me feel like I was actually funny, which I really appreciated.

And now even though she’s in her last year of pharmacy school now (they grow up SO quickly), we’ve managed to keep in touch every now and again. From our mutual love of Grogu (probably more on my end, but bless her, she humors me) to folding baos and dumplings, she’s always someone I can confidently depend on being up in the wee hours when I need to urgently share with someone a meme of a rapping tofu.

Shaydah and I met through mutual friends, but we’ve gotten closer over the last several years bonding over mutual interests in comfort and food amongst other things. (You see how all my friends love food.. no shame guys, NO SHAME). I can be my not-so serious self around her while eating [healthy-ish] fast food and hanging around in our t-shirts and sweats. She is one of those people who will always be there for you if you need a hand or let you borrow her pants to go to the grocery store. She will listen and support you while you complain about how expensive TVs cost now a days. And she’ll always welcome you in the house if you need to crash or play with the puppy. Yes, if you NEED to, which we have already taken her up on several times.

Danny and I have been friends since sophomore year of high school when he realized that carrying around my school bags while I was hobbling on crutches provided a wonderful opportunity to be late to classes consequence-free.

Since then, there have been countless video game all-nighters, playlists finely-tuned over years of spontaneous road trips, a year as roommates in a college dorm smaller than a broom closet, a cross-country trip packed into Danny's beloved late Ford Focus named Cyan (which heroically survived a blizzard in Colorado), the world's dumbest inside jokes for which even we have probably forgotten the origin stories, and all the pieces that form the kind of lifelong friendship that some people are never lucky enough to find. Mel and I are overjoyed to have him celebrate with us as the BEST best man.

Brandon and I met in pharmacy school and quickly bonded over... let's call it mutual social values (we were kind of loners).

Perhaps the only person I know whose baseball and general sports fandom rivals (and likely exceeds on account of his immoral degenerate gambling) my own, Brandon's beloved Kansas City Royals and Chiefs have been to two World Series and three Super Bowls and won three collective titles in the time that I have been a part of his life. This is clearly not a coincidence. All I asked as payment for my obviously central role in these successes was that his beautiful new baby boy Connor's middle name be "Adley Rutschman," but Brandon has rudely refused this simple and entirely reasonable request even though his wife Gina DEFINITELY told me that she was totally 100% on board.

If you are very lucky, perhaps once in your life you will have a co-worker that transcends the typical dynamic of a professional relationship and becomes a dear friend, maybe even something close to family.

I am not very lucky.

This guy is the absolute worst. He's always yelling at me about "knowing my worth" and "setting healthy boundaries" and "advocating for myself" and other complete nonsense, and he never really appreciates all the hard work I put in to make extremely necessary color-coordinated labels for our experiments.

Real piece of work.

I met Eric in a hospital if you can believe it.

Justin has been leaving a ton of money on the table for years by not actualizing his calling as a travel guide specializing in hole-in-the-wall eateries, so I think it may be best to use this space to give him some free advertisement. You know, as a groomsman gift or whatever.

Do you want to eat sashimi on an African safari? Justin knows where to go. Korean street food on top of an active volcano? Justin. Always wanted to try haggis while skydiving? Justin knows the way. Bao bun beignet fusion in like... a barrel going over Niagara Falls or something? Guarantee you Justin's done it (he says it was kind of meh). Whatever your culinary inclinations, always remember: JUST ASK JUSTIN!

(You're welcome, buddy.)