Twenty years from now, we will all look back on our high school careers and remember those with whom we shared unforgettable moments. Science teacher Jamie Grimes is fortunate in that this is exactly what he does on a daily basis.

“We’ve known each other for so long,” said Grimes. “I can’t think of middle school or high school without thinking of those two because we all hung out together all the time.”

Grimes, social studies teacher Sarah Bourgeois and science and staff development teacher Jennifer Roland all went to Farquhar Middle School and Sherwood High School together. Just like typical high school students, they went to homecoming, prom and football games with each other.

Bourgeois was the first of the threesome to start teaching at WJ seven years ago. Grimes started as WJ’s swimming and diving coach one year later and then started teaching two years after that. Grimes said the fact that Bourgeois worked at WJ was “an added bonus.” Only three years later, Roland switched from Forest Oak Middle School into WJ’s science department, at Grimes and Bourgeois’ pleading.

“We got Jen to come here,” said Grimes. “[We] said to Jen, ‘we need a bio teacher, so switch.'”

And that she did.

Grimes and Roland have known each other the longest. They met in second grade at Olney Elementary School. Soon they met Bourgeois in sixth grade at Farquhar. At Sherwood, Roland and Bourgeois were also on the volleyball team together.

Roland remembers her sixth grade world studies teacher sitting her students alphabetically by last name. Bourgeois’ maiden name, Husman, came right before Roland’s maiden name, Jarosinski.

“The two of us got to sit at the same table with one of the most picked on kids and one of the cutest boys in the sixth grade,” said Roland.

Although the memory is blurred, one they often relive entails either a mad Bouregois or Roland throwing a blue slushee at a boyfriend. The slushee ended up missing the boyfriend and soaking Grimes instead.

Bourgeois remembers the parties.

“When one of our close friends turned 16, we took a limo to Johnny Rockets,” said Bourgeois.

Grimes and Bourgeois went to their senior homecoming together. According to Roland, they went as “friends.” Grimes, on the other hand, likes to retell the story with a goonish smile.

The threesome used to see each other all the time. Grimes and Roland lived only a block apart. All three would go to the movies, hang out or go to other people’s houses. They all lived in Olney during the first two or three years they were teaching and would meet and have coffee once a week.

Now, families and geography have gotten in the way of getting together.

“Once we all started moving, since Jen lives in Columbia, Sarah lives in Germantown and I live in Gaithersburg, it’s a lot harder to meet up together in one spot,” said Grimes. “They have married lives and kids so it’s a little bit more complicated.”

Despite the distance geographically, Bourgeois said that she is lucky working at the same school with two of her oldest friends. She finds it easier to arrange to meet.

“[Working at the same school] makes it easier for all of us to get together since we are at the same school and know the same people,” she said.

Even though they have all grown up, all three get to see each other at school regularly. Fellow Biology teachers, Grimes gets to plan with Roland for at least one period. He will often pop by Bourgeois’ room to say “hello.”

All three experienced the weddings of Bourgeois and Roland together. Bourgeois was Roland’s maid of honor. Both still see each other, often to watch Maryland football games together.

“We have many of the same friends, so I get to see her at their bridal and baby showers, children’s birthday parties [and] super bowl parties,” said Roland. “Sarah and I also get together to go to dinner, watch movies or just hang out.”

Bourgeois loves how their friendship is ongoing.

“It was [hard] to pin point one [memory] in particular because we keep making new ones,” she said.

PETER LANGER CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT.