Jack Killeen
Junior Editor
Since the first day of kindergarten, seniors Alex Puricelli, Eric Grumke, Sam Short, Isaac Herzog and Adam Obermeier have been friends. As college approaches, they face a five-way long distance relationship.
All of them go back to Rosie Keckler’s kindergarten class at Avery, others even farther. Grumke and Obermeier enjoyed playing Legos together at the ages of two and three. Short and Obermeier met in preschool and bonded over their love of charming women.
Herzog said, “There used to be a lot empty space in my life. Then I met these boys, and they filled all my nooks and crannies.” He first moved to St. Louis from Virginia in kindergarten, officially marking the complete friendship of all five of them.
Grumke said, “Throughout grade school we switched around a lot who was best friends with who, but we were always friends with each other.”
After graduating fifth grade and moving onto Steger, each of them branched off to students from other elementary schools, but the Avery group stayed intact. Eventually they came back together and began hanging out primarily with each other again.
“In sixth grade we began to seek stimulation from other humans, but at the end of the day we realized we’re bros for life, bros forever,” said Obermeier.
According to Herzog, they all like horses to some extent, have shared the same laugh and smile, are Red Cross certified, spent the night in the same room, enjoy a night at the bowling alley and wish they were named Toby.
Short said, “What makes our friendship different is how similar we are to each other. People lose friends and gain friends, but I think we’ve stayed together because we have the same interests, making it weird that the five of us met in kindergarten.”
“We like to chill really hard, and we have a bond that’s like a mother hen to her eggs. If you break those eggs, you make a beautiful omelet of fraternity and love,” said Obermeier. “We also love to lay back and watch beach volleyball and live. L-I-V-E.”
After graduation they plan to stay in touch with each other, looking forward to breaks and getting back together to watch beach volleyball.
“I plan to go to big places and make big friends,” said Puricelli. “No matter what I do in my life, I always got the boys by my back, pushing me forward.”
(Photos by Jack Killeen)
Gonna miss these boys!