To the friends who have been there for me since day one (day one meaning the first week of middle school).

I've never really taken the time to thank all of you. I should have written this letter a long time ago, but better late than never, right? There are so many things I need to thank you for, so hopefully this letter covers them all.

Thank you for staying by my side through middle school even though I was probably the most annoying human being alive. Thank you for not making fun of my bright green eye shadow and awful haircuts (even though I'm sure you really wanted to). Thank you for letting me be a drama queen when I had a crush on the weirdest kid in the seventh grade. Thank you for convincing me that he was in fact a loser. Thank you for being my friends even when we didn't really know what true friendship was yet.

Thank you for following me through high school, and for helping me develop a better fashion sense (bye-bye green eye shadow, thank the lord). Thank you for sticking by me even when we no longer had every class together. Thank you for going to football games with me and joining me in laughing at the popular kids. Thank you for not leaving me for the popular kids because our group was way cooler anyway. Thank you for coming up with killer inside jokes with me (some of which we still laugh about).

Thank you for being my shoulder to cry on when I lost my first love. Thank you for finally convincing me that I deserved better. Thank you for staying by me through my eating disorder and depression, and for trying to help me get better, even though that meant having to watch me suffer for a while. Thank you for forgiving me when those struggles made me selfish and mean. Thank you for getting through those bad times with me so that we could celebrate high school graduation together.

Thank you for not abandoning me after graduation, even when I went to a different school. Thank you for coming to visit me on campus and for having Skype dates with me. Thank you for helping me make the decision to transfer campuses, but only if it made me 100 percent happy. It did.

Thank you for still being my true friends to this day. Thank you for knowing that even though I'm in a sorority now and doing a billion different things with a billion different people, you all will always be my day one pals. Thank you for never giving up on me, and never letting me go.

I am truly thankful to have had such wonderful friends for the past eight or so years. I am confident that we will all be friends until the very end. You will all be at my wedding. You will be there when my kids are born. We will have wine and gossip sessions together and our bond will never change. Thank you all for being you. I feel bad for people who say that they have never had true friends. My heart truly hurts for them because had I not met people like you eight years ago, I may not have been alive to write this letter today. Your love and support has lifted me up in so many ways.

Thank you all for being you. Can't wait to have wheelchair races together at our high school reunions.

Love,

Your forever grateful friend.