Dionne to my Cher.

I use the term "long distance" loosely because anything further than the same town feels like we live across the country from each other. I love that somehow in the five to six years that we’ve known each other, we have been the closest when we’ve lived the furthest from each other. I think that there’s something about seeing someone every day that can make us grow lazy, you grow to take advantage of the fact that they’ll always be there. How do you really know until you put that friendship to the test?

Both of us going to college was initially hard. There are definite strains put on any friendship from home when you get to school and start to create memories and relationships with new people. It can either break you apart, or make you work even harder at preserving your friendship, and luckily enough for us that’s what happened. It didn’t come easy, and there have definitely been fights. Somehow, though, we always get through them closer.

As I’ve talked about in a past article, there will always be those friends that we grow apart from. The ones that seem like lifelong friends, and then along the way you grow apart. That will never happen with us, we’re both way too pushy to allow that to happen. I also don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t send you photos of my conversations throughout the day. You are 100 percent stuck with me, till nursing homes do we part. We spend way too much time talking about our futures to not see it all come true.

We both balance each other out and are exactly the same all at once. Somehow we’ve grown into sisters, a weird family that keeps in constant contact throughout the good, terrible and the downright weird. Technology has advanced just enough so that we can text throughout the day, FaceTime each other when we’re shopping to ask for advice and send Snapchats that contain rants about our boy problems. You’re the only person that I would go shopping with and cry about a tea kettle for our imaginary apartment (to be fair, it was really cute), and completely understand where I was coming from. Somehow we’ve picked up on each other’s weirdness, made obvious by the voices that we give to any poor animal that is around us. You know all of my secrets and weird quirks – and I know yours. I wouldn’t trust anyone else with the things you know, there are some odd things that people would judge the both of us about.

Personality wise, we bring out the better, braver parts of each other and I am thankful for that. There are risks that I would never have taken if it weren’t for you and I definitely think I bring you back down to earth.

Both of our lives are insanely busy, there is some major stress and craziness that comes with being in college and trying to figure out your life, and with two people trying to get through it all at the same time it can get a little insane. Somehow, though, we have found a balance. And for that I’m thankful because I don’t know what I would do without a friend like you.

Any friends that I’ve made along the way – and some of the guys – have probably met you. There is a screening process for anyone in my life; they have to get through my family and best friend to be approved. You have definitely called out some toxic friendships of mine, and I can say that I take your opinion on any new people very seriously because of that. We can give a clear perspective on the situations and relationships going on in each other’s lives, and good or bad, we’re usually both right in the end.

I cannot wait to see if we both get the things we want out of life and see if our futures end up as intertwined as we had hoped. Until then, I’ll see you in January.