"When the silence gets too loud, and I really start to miss everyone, I tell myself the same thing: I can't see you, but I know you're there."
I barely remember a time when you weren't in my life. For the last fifteen years, you've been there. Even when we left for colleges that were 300 miles apart, when I couldn't see you every day like I was used to, I knew you were there. You're still there.
As silly as it sounds, one of the things that has brought us closer together and has kept us close is our mutual love of the show "One Tree Hill." But deeper than our marathon-watching of the show in high school was the meaning we saw in the relationship between two of the lead characters, Lucas Scott and Haley James. You and I have both always said that I'm Haley and you're Lucas. Our friends have always agreed. We were always the best friends that spent altogether too much time together and always got asked if we were dating, which prompted crinkled noses and noises of disgust from each of us.
Together, we have been through and seen it all. You liked me even back when I wore ugly clothes like Haley's poncho and beanie. Like Lucas, you've watched me make some fairly stupid and occasionally reckless decisions when it comes to boys, friends and just life in general. While you've always provided me with advice and guidance, you've never stepped in and taken over. You let me be, let me go, then you always welcome me back with open arms, figuratively and literally, when I screw up and realize I was wrong. You've never been further away than a phone call or an outstretched hand.
Just like Lucas and Haley, we spent years solidifying a friendship that would last long past the day we graduated high school and went our separate ways. Though we couldn't pick up and go fishing or go get ice cream or see movies together anymore, our friendship remained unwavering. Despite communication becoming more difficult and visits occurring fewer and further between, you and I both to this day will drop everything when something is really wrong, or when one of us just needs somebody familiar to talk to.
And when we do get to see each other, we pick up right where we left off--like Lucas and Haley do when he flies back to help her. I know that if it came down to it, you would jump on a plane and come to me, wherever I was. And I think you know that I'd do exactly the same.
Let's hope you and I never have to sit in a hospital waiting room on my wedding day, and that we never have to search for my kidnapped preschooler. But, in big problems and small, you're the one I want to face the tough stuff with and celebrate the great stuff with.
So even when I can't see you, I know you're there. Thank you for that, and for being the Lucas to my Haley.
