Happiness: that word simplifies friendship. It simplifies all the boba runs, the waves of laughter, the smiles, the great joy and energy that friendship offers. Life is never meaningless, rather, it's meaningful. Having friendships taught me that. It told me that making mistakes pardon themselves because everyone's just trying to learn. It's beautiful in so many ways that I can't really describe it.

You experience friendship in several ways. They made me happier, more confident- they helped me grow into the being I looked up to when I was younger. Friendship was bold, and it helped me be bold. If my friends jumped off a cliff, of course, I'm going to jump too because why not? Why not experience the thrill, with your friends?

Let me find my truth in friendship, a truth that said that I was loved. Let me see that the values it has brought me up to feel better about myself. Let me see that it holds a truth about love: that friendship type of love that helped me find a different happiness. This different happiness has given me people and memories I could turn towards when the times get tough. When my light dimmed down, in times of academic stress, I found comfort in friendship/love- their qualities of beauty brightening up the world.

I'm not here to flex how happy I am. I'm not here to simp/think about graduating and leaving. I'm writing this partly to say "thank you, from the bottom of my heart." A genuine "thank you" doesn't even seem like enough to exhume the great magnitude of brightness and happiness I feel when I'm around the people I love.

To write all of this out means that I'm sharing an experience that shows the meaningfulness of life. People say we are a social species, and honestly, they're not wrong. Finding relief in being with friends is enough to say that we can't just walk around the planet and just exist. We live, leaving footsteps, mesmerized by the experience.