All of a sudden, there were so many differences. It happened fast. Just like that there were thousands of miles between us, millions of people separating us, and only one bond to hold us together. All at once, we would have to learn to build our friendship on our differences, not our similarities because being 15 hours and 27 minutes away from your best friend will change you.

Although I always knew that our friendship wouldn’t end like that summer had, there were about 250 days between us and any kind of semi-permanent reunion. I never thought that I would have someone in my life that would make saying see you later this hard.

I need you to know everything-- even the things I’ll forget to say. You need to know who held the door for me and who happened to be at the gym when I was there, again. You need to know that, even though it’s only Monday morning, it’s significant that he’s been at the dining hall every time I’ve gotten breakfast this week. I need you to know all of these things because that’s what our friendship is built on-- or so I thought.

Damn, did I think wrong? Only because we had so many similarities in our lives did we care so much about the little things that seem so petty now when it comes to the foundation of our relationship. Although these are all still common topics of discussion, they certainly aren’t what hold us together.

The glue is a one part “How was your day?” and two parts, mastering the art of storytelling over FaceTime and finding the best place to prop up my phone because sometimes demonstrations are necessary. Through everything though, you have reminded me that it is just distance and in the end, that’s not a whole lot when you have what we have. So thank you for that.

Thank you for never getting hung up on the distance and never hanging up on me even when I forgot that you were an hour behind and were still sleeping on a Sunday morning. Thank you for telling me how the rest of the world would judge me, but never really judging me yourself. Thank you for leaving me voicemails at 2am telling me how much you missed me, and thank you for calling until I woke up when the story was that important. Thank you for knowing that our friendship never was and never will be built on competition, you are my number one. Although you aren’t physically here, it doesn’t matter what time I need you, I know you’ll still be there for me and I’ll be me for you. So, I can’t say it enough, thank you. Thank you for growing and allowing me to go in my direction but always knowing that when it comes to us, we are never far from where our paths split.

Although we have spent all of this time apart, we are always together. This bond and this friendship that we have is one in a million and I am so thankful for everything that you have done for me and everything that we share. There’s no one quite like you, that’s for sure, and I wouldn’t change a thing. I wouldn’t change the weirdness or the sadness or the dark moments that we worked through because we have worked through them together.

I can’t wait to see what the future holds for our friendship and to see the ways in which you change the world. I love you till the day after tomorrow.