It was after the opening faculty dinner at The American School in Switzerland that I found three friends for life - or perhaps they found me. There we were in front of a table of opened bottles of leftover wine. The personale staff, Massimo and Stefano, told us to take whatever we wanted; they couldn’t reuse the wine. And after grabbing a bottle in each hand, I looked up to see these three girls also holding a bottle in each hand. “Where should we go?” asked Sarah?
“My apartment. Follow me.” I decided. And off we went to Panorama Top named for its panoramic 280º view of Lake Lugano, Monte Brè, and Monte San Salvatore. That night, we decided to have lunch on the lake the next day, and during that lunch, we resolved to have dinner once a week. Every Sunday night - no matter who had dorm duty, no matter when comments were due, or no matter how many students had to be placed in a sport or service club - we met there in my apartment. I’d relax all afternoon cooking and perking my ears to the quick hurried steps of Kelly coming up the stairs or the soft greetings of Betta to the girls in the dorm or the restrained irritation in the voice of Sarah on her cell phone, “Carolyn, I have the dorm phone. Let me know where I can hand it off to you.” We would choose a movie and use a classroom projector to watch it on the wall above my bed.
The girls and I traveled to Luzern and London that year. In the past four years, our reunions have taken us to New York, Chicago, Iowa, and Newport, RI. Looking forward to years of travels together and their friendship.