Dear Cousins,

Although we have different parents and grew up in different homes, you really are more like siblings to me. Since I can remember, you have been my best friends and playmates. Every family gathering and vacation, we spent countless hours playing made up games and putting together songs and shows to perform to our parents. You taught me so much about the world at such a young age and always encouraged me to be the best I could be, while always being people that I could fall back on.

Now that we are older, there's nothing in the world like sitting back and sharing our old memories together. Our friendship is so strong because we have years and years of memories to fall back on. The best feeling is laughing about all the times we created forts in the woods, fought off fake monsters, drew our own city in the driveway out of sidewalk chalk, and had diving competitions off the dock in the lake. The best part of my childhood was having lots of other kids who I could look up to and hang out with all the time.

It's so much fun growing up with your best friends. Even though we may not see each other as often now, our times together are that much better when we can get together. There's nothing like dancing the nights away with you, sharing life advice, and making fun of the people that we've somehow all grown up to be.

The best part of being so close with you all is that I always have people to navigate through life with. You're always there to celebrate big accomplishments, like sports championships, college acceptances, graduations, and so much more. On the other side of things, you're always there to be a shoulder to cry on, whether it's about a break-up or a pet passing away. You give the best advice on school, relationships, friendships, and life itself. I truly don't know how I would have made it through life without such wonderful cousins by my side.

Even though we're grown now, I know that we'll always be like siblings. Someday I'll consider your kids my nieces and nephews, and I don't doubt that we'll all wind up at big family gatherings every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. We'll watch our kids run around and act like the imaginative little munchkins that we used to be, and we'll sit back, drink sangria, and laugh at them.

Though these two words cannot express the gratitude I have for everything you've done for me in life, I'll say them anyway.

Thank you.

With much love,

Your cousin/sibling