A group of old college friends has met on Zoom every Thursday night for 321 weeks. They don't plan to ever stop.

"These 10 friends are on Zoom, where they've met every Thursday at 9:30 p.m. since March 19, 2020. Like so many of us, they started their weekly virtual catch-up as a pandemic reprieve. Unlike the rest of us, they never stopped. Across 321 Zoom calls, they've logged on from five countries and 13 states, helped each other through six major career changes, celebrated two weddings and three babies between them, and turned 35 then 40 together."

"It's a Thursday night catch-up like any other for the group of old college friends from Villanova. Their conversation, peppered with inside jokes and nostalgic references, easily floats through elder millennial topics job transitions, sleep regression, "Gen Z coworkers, what do I do with them?" before it's briefly interrupted. "Guys, I'm so sorry, I have to jump," Kate Reynolds says from Bourbon Street, her wired headphones swinging on the screen like Mardi Gras beads. "We just got to the karaoke bar, but I love you all.""

"Thursday nights have become sacred to the "NovaZoom" crew. It's taught them how to foster long-lasting adult friendships, and they plan to keep the tradition going forever or at least until they move into a retirement home together."

"College life was still somewhat analog when the NovaZoom group met as freshmen in 2003. If you wanted to catch up with a long-distance friend, you'd call them. The only way to share your location was an AIM away message. Texts were rare each cost 50 cents to send, and 10 to receive. TV was a communal activity, especially when there was a new episode of "Friends" or "Sex and the City." "It was probably the last era where our lives weren't fully dependent on technology," said Nick Sampogna, one of the NovaZoom members."

A group of 10 Villanova college friends meets every Thursday at 9:30 p.m. on Zoom, starting March 19, 2020. Their calls include inside jokes, nostalgia, and topics like job transitions, sleep regression, and working with Gen Z coworkers. The routine began as a pandemic reprieve and continued without stopping, spanning 321 Zoom calls from five countries and 13 states. During that time, they supported one another through six major career changes, celebrated two weddings and three babies, and marked milestones together as they aged from 35 to 40. Thursday nights became a lasting tradition they plan to keep for the long term.

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