Choosing a college to attend can one of the hardest decisions to make. For me, that part was the easiest. I knew for a long time during my college application process where I wanted to attend school. The hardest part of choosing a college for me came in the form of the realization that I would be moving over 600 miles away from my best friends on Long Island.

Friends are the people we run to when we need a shoulder to lean on. Best friends are the people we run to when it feels like our world is shaking at its core. Whether it be trouble with classes, boy troubles, or just plain old homesickness, my best friends have been there through it all, despite my decision to move what feels like worlds away, and I couldn’t be more grateful for them and their support.

Just like every dynamic between any number of people, no friendship is perfect. My friends from home and I have had our differences, but we’ve always made it through the difficult times. From deciding where to go for dinner to having to tell someone they need to chill out, our friendships have lasted through it all, even the long distance.

Our freshman year of college, we attempted to skype as frequently as possible. As our social lives grew at our colleges, that became more and more difficult. At first, it was hard to imagine my best friends having completely separate groups of friends that I hardly knew anything about. For four years we had a solid group and we didn’t venture far from it. We stuck together. College changed that, and it was hard, but we pushed through the initial weirdness of each one of us branching out.

Fast forward two and a half years and we are about to finish our third year of college and, from where I stand, our friendships have never been stronger. Sure, we get on each other’s nerves sometimes. One week one of us is closer to one person and the next they’re closer to another, but when it comes down to it, the girls I go home to every break and make every move to spend as much time with as possible are the ones that have gotten me through moving so far away from all of the people I love and miss.

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely could not make it through college without the friends I’ve made along the way, but there is a place in my heart for the girls that accepted me in my awkward, pubescent, uniform-wearing days of high school that couldn’t be filled by anyone else. Ever.

My friends back home are amazing. Sometimes we get on each other’s nerves, but there is nothing I wouldn’t do for them. But, if there’s one thing I probably haven’t done enough, it would be thanking them.

Dear Best Friends,

Thank you for always being honest with me, for always telling me that that shirt really didn’t look as good on me as I thought it did.

Thank you for spotting me if I didn’t have enough money on me for dinner.

Thank you for the endless life chats that always get me through hard times.

Thank you for listening to me drone on and on about how stupid boys can be.

Thank you for always being there for me, even when I’m being really difficult and annoying… which is probably a lot….

But most of all, thank you for not only becoming my family (because you are, you’re my sisters through and through), but also for becoming part of my family. I was born with two sisters, but God gave me three more when I walked through those doors on the first day of high school.

I love you for always, best friends!

Sincerely,

Your dumb best friend that went to college WAY too far away.