Cow Appreciation Day

I moved to Atlanta in the summer of 2007 to begin physical therapy school at Emory University. I didn't know a soul, aside from my cousin who lives in a suburb west of Atlanta. Well, that's not entirely true. I had one acquaintance.

I met Emily H. when I first interviewed at Emory. The first thing I noticed about her was the fact that she had a tanzanite ring on her left ring finger. I had always wanted a gemstone engagement ring (at the time, Dave and I were not yet engaged), and I simply had to ask about hers. I broke the ice and found out that it was, in fact, an engagement ring. I found out that she was from the same hometown as my cousins: Overland Park, Kansas. Then, she shared that her fiancé was applying to law school at Georgia State University. I was taken aback; at the time, Dave was applying to Georgia State Law! The coincidence of a Kansas couple and a Florida couple applying to the same set of schools was fascinating to me. Clearly, I was meant to cross paths with these folks. Emily H. and I stayed in touch on Facebook to update each other on the statuses of our boys' applications. When we moved to Atlanta, we met up to buy books and what not.

It was nice to see Emily H.'s familiar face at orientation, but I spotted another familiar face in that auditorium. Christina was in my major at UF, but we never managed to strike up a conversation with one another in class (probably because we were too hungover tired that early in the morning). When I finally introduced myself to her at Emory, I met another fellow Gator - Christina's sorority sister, Erin.

Emily H., Christina, Erin, and I then picked up a fifth member to our study group: Emily L. I don't remember how; she was just awesome.*

Cow Appreciation Day was one of my earliest memories with these girls. What's that? You've never heard of Cow Appreciation Day?! Well, you must live in a part of the country that isn't lucky enough to have Chick-Fil-A (Yet, that is. My sister lives in NYC and has been writing countless letters to them asking them to bring one to her home in Harlem). The concept is simple: dress like a cow, get free chicken.

We enjoyed it so much, we went back in 2008 for lunch...

...and a late-night sweet treat!

Here we are again in 2009, trying to decide whether or not we wanted to "moo" in our picture:

We graduated in 2010, and our imminent jobs forced us to go our separate ways. Erin moved back to Tampa right after graduation, but the rest of us stayed in Atlanta to study for boards together. This meant we were able to celebrate yet another Cow Appreciation Day together.

Later that summer, Emily H. moved back to Kansas and Christina moved back to Jacksonville. Emily L. and I, of course, stayed in Atlanta. Those girls are still some of my very best friends, even if we have to correspond from a distance. We have been able to get together from time to time, especially for special occasions.

{Photo by Evan Hampton}

When I look at these pictures of us through the years, I'm proud of how much we've grown. We became friends four years ago as scared students, cramming as much information as possible into our stressed out little brains. If there's one thing I learned while in grad school, it's that you absolutely have to have some sort of a support system while you're there. All five of us made it through that rigorous program and emerged as competent therapists.

Chick-Fil-A celebrated Cow Appreciation Day 2011 last week. It was different this year. Not only were my PT school friends and I now scattered across the country, we were now grown-ups. We have jobs and responsibilities, and that significantly hinders daytime plans! I still celebrated with a friend from work...

...and a text to my old friends.

What quirky tradition do you have with your group of friends?

*Emily L. does not appear in the rest of this post because she has always had something going on during Cow Appreciation Day. One year she was out of town, I think she had people visiting one year, and so on. She's off the hook, though, because 1) she's good at going to foodie things with me (You may recognize her from this post) and 2) she's awesome.