Throughout my life I will meet people every day. I will go to college and meet new friends who share my interests, and with these new friends I'll have the opportunity to reinvent myself. I will get a job one day, and have professional friends who I invite over to my house and have formal dinner parties with. Or maybe they will just be someone that say hello to in the office (and that is fine by me). I will have a family one day, and a house, and I will meet my neighbors and have BBQ’s with them and try not to be intimidated by their fancy new cars and freshly painted houses.

Regardless of all of these new people that will ultimately enter my life, the one person that will always stay constant is the friend from back home, the one I grew up with.

1. You have loved me through every phase.

First, we had messy hair and braces together. That was the time when we would stand side by side in our matching GAP sweatshirts and our boy sneakers, posing for another picture. Then I introduced you to thick, pitch-black smudged eyeliner and you introduced me to the wonders of cutting your own hair. We lived through each and every change. Now, looking back, we cringe at those old photographs and murmur, “What were we thinking?” but I smile because those were the ‘good old days’ and I wouldn’t trade them for the world.

2. You wiped away my tears.

You’ve been there to support me through every hard time that I’ve ever had to face. It was you that I ran to when I failed that one spelling test, and didn’t know how to tell my mom. You threatened to beat up the bully who made fun of me. Years later, you were there to force-feed me chocolate-covered caramels when I went through my first real breakup. The troubles may have changed, but your reaction is always constant. You have always been there for me. No matter what.

3. We developed our own language.

When you spend the amount of time together that we did, most of the time you don’t even need words to communicate. You’d raise your eyebrows at me, and I’d give you an all-knowing nod and in that moment we shared an entire conversation. But when we did talk, we were always coming up with new nicknames for the people and places in our lives. It was our secret code, and the names stuck. An outsider would never understand. They’d look at us questioningly and after we looked at each other and laughed, we’d explain a small portion of our secret language. It only brought us closer, a little secret that we held from the world.

4. You challenged me.

Things have not always been perfect. There have been times when we argued, fought, held grudges, and stopped talking. Although we are so close, there are things that we disagree on. Yet somehow we always find our way back to each other. In the middle of a huge fighting stand-off, I would often think, “I wish I wasn’t so mad at her, because I have a really great story to tell her.” Through every bickering mess that we’ve gone through, you’ve taught me something. You strengthened me, and made me stand up for myself. And I’d like to think that I had an impact on you too.

5. You’re my best friend forever.

Through every stage in life, growing up with you was always constant. I have so many memories of the two of us, and you have seamlessly fit into every year of my life. I wouldn’t change those years for the world, and I can’t wait to make many more years worth of memories with my best friend. We still have a lot of growing up to do, and I’m glad that I get to grow up with you.