To my grade-school friends: Thank you for reminding your parents that it was your week to bring in snacks for snack time. Thank you for making the school spelling bee feel like the Olympics and for cheering each other on during it.

Thank you for all the bloody knees and tears that were shed when we fell off our bikes. Grade school wouldn’t have been the same without all of your endless teasing, high-fives and never-ending games of tag on the playground. My childhood was incredible because of you all and I thank you for that.

To my middle-school friends: Never forget our hardcore dodgeball and kickball games during P.E. Also, remember that we all got to see each other go through our awkward stages and that we must never speak of those terrible school picture days. Thank you for sticking together when we got yelled at by our teachers, if one of us goes down, we all go down, right?

Thank you for all the funny and pointless jokes we told one another, for all the notes passed in class and for always trying to convince our teachers to have a movie day. Thank you for all the secret Santa gifts and for all the cheesy Valentine cards our parents made us buy and give to everyone in the class. Despite having gone through our awkward stages, we sure had some fun times.

To my high-school friends: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... Ha, just kidding. Thank you for being the main reason I am half the sane person that I am today. You all managed to deal with me and my sass for four years and God bless your souls because I don’t how you all did it. Thank you for listening to me talk about whatever for hours on end, for all of your harsh but much needed honesty and for all the times you managed to put a smile on my face when I was feeling gray.

Thanks for all the love and support throughout the years, I really don’t think I’d be here if it weren’t for every single one of your unique personalities and everything you contributed to my life. Thank you for all the hysterical laughs, stressful study sessions and for letting me come over whenever. I can’t imagine life without you and so here’s a virtual round of applause for you.

To my college friends: Thank you for being my home away from home. Thank you for teaching more about life in the short amount of time that we’ve known each other than I thought possible. Thank you for teaching me that it’s okay not to take things too seriously and that sometimes you just have to go with flow and see where the tide takes you.

Thank you for all the endless nights, our less-than-effective homework sessions at the library and talking about anything and everything. Thank you for always being down to get food and for making trips to the store a wild adventure. I know for a fact I wouldn’t have survived this past semester without you and I thank the high heavens every day that I was blessed with you. Here’s to many more memorable nights and may our group text never have one set name because that would be boring and we all know we are anything but.

To my future friends: I haven’t even met you yet and I’m already thanking you for all the good times I know are to come. There is nothing like meeting new people and knowing that you’re on your way to a lasting friendship. I hope that in the future I will be lucky enough to meet you so we can create memories that we’ll end up reminiscing about later on in life.

Thank you for being the friends I’ll take a trip down memory lane with when we have kids of our own and then tell our grandchildren about what we did when we were their age and how different things were back in our day. I may not know you yet, but I know a word of gratitude will never go unappreciated, so thank you.

“Oh, you’re the best friends anybody ever had. And it’s funny, but I feel as if I’d known you all the time, but I couldn’t have, could I?”- Wizard of Oz