Going through high school you always think that the people you're with all day, every day are your real best friends. You get to see them every day, have the same classes as them, and of course never have to do anything alone. You can't imagine graduating and moving to different places and not seeing them anymore. You make promises that you'll never lose touch and that you'll visit everyone all the time. But the harsh reality is: that's not true.

This is where my college best friends come in. Maybe we met on move in day, or on the first day of formal recruitment, or in the bathroom on a Thursday night... no matter how we met, thank you.

First of all, thank you for helping me get used to college life. Freshman year is tough. Thanks for sitting through all those study hall hours with me, giving me rides to and from class, and always being up for going to the mountain at five a.m. when studying is just too much. Oh, and thanks for taking me in night after night when I was dying to get out of the freshman dorms.

And thank you for bringing out my inner-freshman. As freshmen, there weren't too many Thursday nights we missed out on. And this year, thanks to my friends who drag me out on Thursdays because y'all are the new freshmen. It's good to ditch being a grandma and every now and then get dragged out on the dance floor.

On a more serious note, thanks for helping me through everything... and I mean everything. Whether it be failing a test or experiencing my first college heartbreak, y'all are always by my side. Thanks for being that constant source of comic relief when I'm taking life too seriously. I know that I'll never be alone in any situation. Thanks for having my back... even if I'm the one in the wrong.

I can't imagine doing college without any of you, and I definitely can't imagine doing the rest of life without you. Thanks for putting up with me, loving me, crying with me, laughing with me, defending me, and giving me a reality check whenever I need one.