Before I get started, just understand that they were mine first. The following contains inside jokes that are near and dear to my heart. Humor me.

This goes out to a few people that I am jealous of for they have all left impressions on some of the best people in the world, and have the privilege to spend their college years with them.

I envy all of you. You don’t realize how lucky you are to have my friend as your best friend now. Some of you are labeled many different things; girlfriends, party animals, teammates, brothers, sisters, but above all, friends. You and I have so much in common due to the fact that I’m sure that we have both at one time called somebody “Toad”, or listened to a rant about their job at Subway or have looked at each other after a night out and asked “Who brought the Louisville Slugger?” These are all common grounds that I have with people that I have met once, maybe twice. I’ll never forget when JT and I visited Crokey over spring break freshman year and meeting Ellis, a complete maniac with a love for Mike’s Hard Lemonade and had no idea how to recite the Dillon Panther’s motto of “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose.” The second adventure took place when Crokey and I took our voyage to UMass Dartmouth to visit JT. Hours went by and Crokey and I didn’t even feel like visitors, we felt like we belonged there, going to the Del’s and Birch felt like a normal thing to us, a potentially awkward encounter was put to sleep because JT’s friends accepted us as one of their own.

I shared an almost identical scenario on the drive home the following mornings after visiting Quinnipiac with JT and UMD with Croke. We both got in the car, pretty hungover, took a few deep breaths and with heavy hearts, were sad to leave but happy we made it. We were sad to leave for a wide array of reasons. One reason being that depending on how bumpy the ride, we might have to pull over. Another being that we had to part ways with our best friend again, but above all, because that trip was over. But I recall getting onto the highway and looking at JT one time and Croke another time and saying “Man those guys are lucky to have our boy, I am so happy he found some good guys.”

Like I had mentioned before, I envy all of you. I have some of the best friends in the world here at school. The day will come where they visit me and my fellow GBears, and if I am lucky enough, they will get in the car, pretty hungover, look at each other, and say “Man those guys are lucky to have our boy, I am so happy he found some good guys.”

So, to the college friends of my best friends, I say thank you. Thank you for loving my family like your own family, thank you for picking them up when I cannot, thank you for holding their hair back or egging them on. I may envy all of you to no end, but I consider you a friend of mine because any friend of theirs, is a friend of mine. I can promise you all that no matter who you surround yourself with, as long as you have one of my people, you’ll always have at least one great person in your corner.