Dear Friends,

How fast the time has gone. Just like that, another year of classes has come to an end. But, as this year drew to a close, the feeling of anticipation for summer to begin transformed into a bittersweet realization that next year things would not be the same.

For me, graduation has always been something far, far in the distance; I still have two more years of undergrad. However, I am beginning to be faced with the reality that although I am not the one crossing the stage sporting a cap and gown, some of my close friends are. Graduation has taken on a new meaning and has begun to affect me in a new way.

Graduation, of course, is a time to celebrate. We "cheers" to all of your accomplishments over the past four years and reminisce on all of the times we've spent together, even the ones we wish we could forget. We make plans to meet up in the summers and for you to return to our beloved college town to spend a long weekend together (funded by you this time, now that you're a real person with a real job). Unfortunately, deep down we both know that graduating means moving on, and moving on means things will be different.

Different, in this case, should not have a bad connotation. For you, different means a degree, your dream job and your own apartment. For me, different means advanced classes, an internship and, of course, taking over your beloved bar seat. While it breaks my heart for us to reach these milestones without each other, a bond that has survived all that we have been through can certainly handle a little distance.

I would not be where I am today in my collegiate career if it were not for you. So, I thank you.

I thank you for all of the hours spent at the library when you reminded me that if you could do it, then so could I.

I thank you for all of the times you reassured me that the topic of my awful drunken behavior would blow over within a few hours.

I thank you for always including me and never looking down on me as someone inferior to you.

I thank you for being a role model and for always being someone that I was able to and will continue to rely on.

To put it simply, I thank you for being such a good friend.

Good friends in college are hard to come by, and I definitely wouldn't have made it this far without you. Congratulations; I can't wait to see what the future holds for you.

Sincerely,

Graduate Pending 2018