Several recent studies and polls have shown that 85 percent of people hate their jobs. Sometimes it’s because of the pay, but it could also be because of the long hours. Worst of all, it could be because of bad co-workers. But for a certain group of North Platte High School teachers, the job is a perfect fit, and the fellow teachers are the best part. World history teacher Josh Bruck (#grit) has been at the high school for 12 years and developed several strong friendships with a handful of teachers , some who arrived before him and some who showed up later. “We have similar teaching philosophies, and we started as friends at work, and then it grew to friends outside of work by just hanging out and coaching together,” Bruck said.

Along with Bruck, this crowd of close knit comrades includes math teacher Kyle Milton, English teacher Andrew Butler, and digital media teacher Brandon Peterson. “We’re all kind of on the same seriousness wavelength; it’s just fun to be at work. To have this kind of support and positive relationships just makes work easier,” said Butler.

Whether it’s guessing The Bachelorette correctly, making a friendly bet on the Super Bowl, or going head to head in a teacher fantasy football league, these guys love a little competition. “During college bowl season, Mr. Butler and I went to Applebee’s and picked every game and tweeted out our picks,” Peterson said.

Both Butler and Peterson believe that the best interactions in the group come from the most random things. “One day ‘Hotel California’ came on and I said, ‘I think this is one of the top 10 greatest songs of all time,’ and Mr. Bruck says, ‘There’s no way!’ and we all started looking it up,” said Peterson. “All of these jokes come from random things that we talk about during the school day, but we know at the base of every joke and discussion and giving each other crap that we’re doing it out of love,” Butler said.

Bruck and Peterson are probably the closest of the four because they have taught together since Mr. Bruck arrived at NPHS. “We all hang out quite a bit, but Mr. Bruck and Mr. Peterson are next level friends,” said Milton. One time Butler recalled Peterson and Bruck playing a version of Pokemon Go at a teacher assembly that was Ghostbusters themed. both are unashamed of their affinity for the 1980’s movies. “My name in his contacts is Vigo the Carpathian and his name in my contacts is Gozer the Gozerian,” said Bruck.

One last thing that everyone that agreed is at the center of this fantastic four-way friendship is dishing crap on each other. “Mr. Bruck probably takes the most shade of anyone because he always gives us the best reactions. But people who can’t take crap or a joke probably aren’t going to be friends with me,” said Milton. Butler concluded by saying that their weirdness might be their best bond, “We’re all very goofy and we call each other out about our goofiness. It’s not to put each other down, but it makes us unique and makes us get along better.”

Fun Quotes:

Andrew Butler

“Mr. Bruck knows exactly what not to say and he finds the absolute best time to say it.”

“I did break Seth Bargell’s glasses in dodgeball.”

“You should never believe anything out of Bruck’s mouth.”

Josh Bruck

“Kyle thinks he’s right all the time, but he’s only right about 73 percent of the time in all sorts of things.”

“Milton and I have done News Bowl against each other in our bulldog times and he tends to cheat.”

“I think Mr. Butler is the most awkward guy in our group.”

Brandon Peterson

“Our class talked about going to play dodgeball, but then we heard that Butler may or may not have broken a kid’s glasses, and so I thought we might need to lay low.”

“Bruck’s favorite thing is to scare me. One time I was walking out of the work room bathroom. He was waiting around the corner and jumped out. I can’t remember my exact words but I think it was like, ‘Real mature!’”

Kyle Milton

“Anytime Mr. Bruck talks in front of a group of people whether it’s really awkward or not, we always bring it up to him.”

“I’m not going to claim that I’m right all the time, but I’m right 95 percent of the time.”