Thank you.

Thank you for being there for me over the years. When I needed you, you were there. When I called at two o’clock in the morning, you answered. Mostly because you were up playing video games, but that’s completely fine, because I still knew I could count on you.

Thank you for always listening to me, even when the story I was telling you probably made you want to smack me for my girly stupidity.

Thank you for telling me how it is. When I needed an honest opinion, I would go to you. You didn’t care to tell me what I wanted to hear, you told me what I needed to hear.

If I would be on the phone crying, your shoes were on and your Jeep was warming up in minutes, ready to go on a Sheetz run.

Most of all, thank you for risking your life for me.

You have spent the last nine months enduring a deployment, and for that, I will never rightfully be able to utilize a “thank you”. Yes, it was something that you wanted to do, but it’s so much more than that.

Saying goodbye to you was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I knew you would be back. I kept telling myself that nothing was going to happen. But the thoughts running through my head highlighted the fact that you are now an infantryman. And you were about to touch down in Afghanistan.

Through all of that, though, you remained my best friend. I still went to you on the very rare occasions that I was dealing with boy troubles, and you told me to stop talking to him and that we would egg his house when you got home.

You were still there for me to call at two o’clock in the morning, and now you were up because you had been up for an hour doing Army things.

Now you’re almost home, almost in the clear. I am looking forward to nothing more than off roading in your new Jeep blasting music and causing so many ruckuses.

Thank you for being you; being my best friend, a great person, son, brother, and finally - a soldier in the United States Army.

Thank you for your friendship. Thank you for your service.