Dear Best Friend,

First of all, thank you. Having a best friend is one of the best feelings in the world. It is someone you can turn to whenever everything seems to be falling apart. I am very thankful that I got to have you by my side for 14 years. I can’t even begin to put into words everything you have done for me. I will forever be grateful for all of the memories.

I am glad you did not quit being my friend when I told people about your crush at my eighth birthday party and that time I interrupted you in third grade. We both know I get extremely excited when it is my turn to talk. And since you forgave me for those times, I guess I can forgive you for telling me not to wear my favorite Mary Kate and Ashley shirt just because you wanted it. We have literally gotten to experience everything with each other, and that makes me extremely happy.

We are not those ordinary friends. So many friendships nowadays started when two people were in high school, or when they met in college. We are different, and I like that. Because of that, we have gotten to see each other experience milestones in each other’s lives. We got to cheer beside each other, dance with each other, experience beauty and beau, graduate high school together and more. Not only did we get to see the highs in each other’s lives, we got to see the lows. We were there through each other’s first heartbreaks and loss of loved ones.

Experiencing college with you is a whole new experience that I love every minute of. You never let me down when I want to unwind from a crazy week and have a drink (or three). And after those long weekends, you never fail to come pick me up at nine o’clock at night to ride and get ice cream. No time is boring with you because one of us is always doing something to entertain the other.

To this day, you never seem to amaze me at how talented you are. You know what you want and go after it. One day, you are going to be living out your dream, and I hope you still have time for me to come convince you to go for a joyride because I just want to listen to a few songs. Because believe me, it is definitely still going to happen in the future.

No matter who I marry, you will always be the Shawn to my Corey. I only hope there is a guy version of Topanga who puts up with us. Kudos to him, though. He is definitely going to need it to survive many more years of us.

Finally, thank you for understanding me when the rest of the world didn’t. It is a crazy world out there, but it is a little less crazy when you have someone alongside you to conquer it with. So, here’s to many more years of ice cream, drinks, tears, and a whole lot more laughter.