I am lucky enough to have known my best friend for my entire life, and that's pretty much because we're related. We grew up together, she's older than me by a little over a month, and we lived just a town over from one another. I remember the days of it being just us, before our siblings were born, riding around in our hot pink barbie jeep, and making a fort in the bushes behind her house. Those remain some of my fondest memories, and for that, I'm very thankful. With the both of us being the oldest sibling in our families, we had the same experiences growing up and could connect with how much we love, but also get annoyed, by our younger siblings. Anyone in our entire family could tell you about us, and how we've been best friends since the very beginning.

As we got older, her family moved to Connecticut, but this didn't mean we drifted apart. We would beg our parents to drive us to each other's houses, even though we lived more than two hours away from one another. We are lucky enough that our parents, my dad, and her mom, are very close siblings, so we got to see each other every holiday, and they would make weekend visits so we could see each other. When she got her license, I couldn't wait for her to make the trip up to see me, and when I got mine, it made visiting each other a lot easier. We've made some of best memories recently too. A couple of years ago we went to sleep-away camp together, flew to Chicago together, attended Lollapalooza, traveled to Block Island beaches, seen Justin Bieber live three times, and stayed overnight in Boston for a music festival. Our days now are constantly texting each other daily drama or stupid pictures. We facetime regularly, almost every day. We now go to colleges 8 hours away from each other, but I feel as close to her as ever.

Thanksgiving has recently passed, but I think about how grateful I am to have someone like Liv in my life. She has been with me through it all, and there is nobody like her in the entire world. She lights up the entire room with how funny, kind, and beautiful she is. Even my friends at home are obsessed with her, and when she comes to visit, everyone wants to hang out with her. She has that kind of presence that makes you want to be around her. Liv is truly one of a kind, and I'm lucky enough to have her not only as my cousin but a best friend for life.