Dear friend,

You constantly go out of your way to ensure everyone is happy before yourself. You were with me through the break ups and the make ups, the times we still reminisce on, the times we will never speak of again and of course our favorite ugly cries. You have been my best friend for as long as I can remember and I am not sure I will ever find another friendship quite like the one we have. We survived elementary, middle and high school together, but for the first time ever since our friendship started, we will be starting a new journey without each other: college.

You chose to stay home to save money, and I chose to leave my house at the first chance I had. We chose different paths but you never stopped supporting me. I shared my writing with you and you constantly pushed me to never stop expressing myself, even if I was only sharing it with you. You accepted my random facetime calls at 1a.m. because I was unsure of what I wanted to do with my life. You constantly tell me how much you look up to me, but the truth is I look up to you.

You are the most selfless human being I have ever encountered. You would take the shirt off your back for someone you hate. You may have thought this my farewell to my best friend, but I do have one last request: as I leave for college, I will not be just a ten minute drive away, I want you to realize that I am always here for you no matter the distance. But the person that really needs to be there for you, is you. My final request before I go join a new friend group, meet new people and inevitably drift away from you, is that you start choosing yourself. Our entire friendship I have seen you go through hell and back for those you love and even for some of those that you do not, but never once have I seen you put yourself first.

I want you to start building yourself up and start loving yourself the way that you love everyone else.

I want you to stand up for yourself the way you stand up for others.

I want you to start doing more of what makes you happy.

I want you to say no without giving an explanation as to why.

I want you to post as many selfies as you want just because you feel pretty in them.

I want you to be so unapologetically yourself, that it scares people.

I want you to be vulnerable, because it is okay to be sad sometimes.

But most of all best friend, I want you to remember when life gets too hard to accomplish these things that I will be just a phone call away. No matter the circumstance, I will always be here for you. Life often becomes too hard to handle, but I never want you to feel like you have to handle it alone. Thank you for being my best friend for all these years and for never letting me give up on myself. For that, I owe you the world. You are my soul mate and I love you more than I could ever put into words.

Love,

Your friend