As the school year continues to fly by and the countdown to returning home gets smaller and smaller, I'm ecstatic knowing I will soon be reunited with my high school friends. It feels like years since we’ve last been together, and with the insufficient amount of times we have been together all at once, I’m eager to be back with my ladies from home.

College is great and I love the time I’ve spent here and the friends I’ve made, but not seeing you all everyday has been a serious adjustment. Leaving you after winter break was just as painful as saying goodbye to you before the fall, and I don’t think it will get much easier, but when we part I know once we are all reunited we will pick up right where we left off.

I miss Friday nights spent getting Oreo shakes and driving around blasting music, and Coffee Wednesday’s just aren’t the same when I’m sharing them with you via snapchat instead of in person. I'm counting down the days until I get to see your faces, but in the meantime, I want to thank you for being my "hometown hunnies."

Thank you for giving me another reason to look forward to coming home.
Obviously there is no greater joy than knowing I am going back to a home cooked meal from mom, Saturday mornings singing Bruce Springsteen with my dad, and once again getting to spend every day with my sisters; but knowing I get to jump into a pig pile with all of you is an added bonus. Thank you for for making me part of your families, so I not only have one family to look forward to coming home to, but multiple.

Thank you for the high school memories.
Thank you for all the pictures that cover my dorm walls and for the endless stories that I’ve probably shared with my college friends at least a hundred times already.

Thank you for keeping up with my college stories.
I constantly forget that the stories I tell are about people you've never met or only know from stalking their social media, but I will forever be impressed with your memory and appreciate you doing your best to follow along.

Thank you for keeping the group chat alive.
You may think I don’t care about what you’re eating for lunch or want to hear your rant about a grade you got on an exam, but I enjoy these small details about your day because it makes me feel like we aren’t so far away after all. You guys will forever be the first ones I want to share my news with. Thank you for giving me a place to ask for advice over what outfit to wear out and to go on about the most recent boy I’m obsessing over. We may not always respond right away, but its comforting knowing I have a place to express my random daily thoughts.

Thank you for visiting me at school and allowing me to do the same.
Thank you for opening the doors of your new life at school and introducing me to all your new friends. Even though I can’t help but experience a small sting of jealousy when I see Instagrams of you with your new friends, this envy arises because those people get to spend time with MY best friends, and I hope they know how lucky they are to have met you.

Thank you for your support and motivation.
Sometimes I just need that extra encouragement of you all telling me to keep doing my best. Whether I’m having a rough week and this whole college thing is kicking my butt, or I’m just really homesick, your texts and seeing your face over FaceTime never fail to cheer me up.

But most importantly, thank you for being my best friends all these years.
Thank you for the endless laughs, the occasionally necessary tough love, and putting up with me for all these years. We may be busy with classes, homework, Greeklife, and work, but we still make time for each other. We are meeting new friends, making new memories of our own, and even though we are scattered across the East Coast I am confident that you will always be my best friends. Our time apart has made me miss you all like crazy, but it also made me realize how lucky I am to have friends like you. I love you all and I'll see you soon!