I'd like to start with thank you.

Thank you for the countless times you included and supported me, from a young age to the current day. Thank you for always packing an extra snack, including me in weekend events and not getting mad when we'd forget to ask if we could have a sleepover. Thank you for treating me like one of your own, and always making me feel welcome. Thank you for always welcoming up your home, for carting me around on family vacations and for always being a shoulder to cry on or an extra person to sit and listen. Oh, and thank you for not getting mad that one time I broke the doorknob.

You played just as important role in my life growing up, as my own family, and I'm incredibly thankful for that.

I'll never for the first time we just "assumed" it was okay I spent the night. It was 10 pm on a Friday and we were spending our time like any other night distracted by our laptops, iPhones or some drama that happened at school earlier in the day. Finally, you came in to see what was going on and when you asked if we "had a question to ask you" all we could think to ask was if we could order pizza. Fast forward a year or two later and this would become the norm.

We'd spend countless hours outside on the trampoline, playing just dance in the living room and making our "famous" Mac and cheese or cheese quesadillas. You always went out of your way to make me feel accepted and even made sure the burgers off the grill didn't have any grill lines. You know, because this clearly meant that they were burnt.

You put up with my nonsense requests and always made sure they were at least acknowledged (no matter how ridiculous).After high school graduation our lives were clearly changing, and so was the friendship not only between my best friend and I but between you and I. We had grown and experiences many different life events together. What once was a nurturing and caring bond between us became as mutual adult friendship, and since then there was no looking backTo celebrate college graduation you helped us plan our trip to Disney and universal and attended it yourself.

The last time we took this trip her and I were mere juniors and high school, and now able to have drinks by the pool he dynamics were changing.