Dear childhood best friend,

First off, I want to thank you. Thank you for being in my life. Thank you for never leaving my side. And if you did for a little while, thank you for coming back. Thank you for sticking by me through it all. Thank you for being you.

Although we are apart now, we’re closer than ever. You are my person. The one that no matter how far, you’re still so close. Our lives are so busy that we may not talk for a few days and go weeks without seeing each other. But, as cliché as this may sound, we always pick up right where we left off.

We’ve been through almost everything together. From learning the ABCs to the awkward stages of middle school (#neverforget) to the drama of high school. You never saw one of us without the other. It was a package deal, and people knew it. The “please don’t tell anyone” rule never applied, because obviously you were the exception. People knew to never invite only one of us, because the other would show up anyways. And if anyone tried to mess with one of us, there’d be serious hell to pay. Mutual obsessions with foreign boy bands was our trademark. Because who wanted to deal with the boys we actually knew anyway? And if one of us did, the other was there to make sure she didn’t fall too hard. And never let her live down that one embarrassing middle school boyfriend she’ll forever regret. And although through all that we may have strayed once or twice, we always found each other again. Every time. And that means something.

Your family became my family, and mine became yours. We practically raised each other, if you think about it. A weekend never went by that we did not spend at least one night at the other’s house, and family trips were incomplete without the other. You knew it was real when your designated seat at the dinner table was empty, and my whole family questioned if you were alive or not because you weren’t there. You could say they love you.

I’ll never forget the nights we stayed up talking about the days when we would finally be in “the real world,” living on our own, having our lives together, and being older (what were we thinking?!). When we thought we were forever stuck in the days of being twelve. And now here we are. Living life… or at least trying to. But we have each other to help with that, and if we can make it through the side-bang and Aeropostale days of middle school, we can make it through anything.

So thank you again for being my best friend and sister since day one. I wouldn’t want to do life with anyone else.