To the person who knows me best,

How do you start a letter to the person that has had the biggest impact on your life? There is not a day that goes by that I am not thankful for you. I have never been able to describe who you are to me because I still don't think there is the proper phrasing of words that gives you the credit that you deserve, but we are going to give it a shot.

Since my junior year of high school and your sophomore year, you have been the person that I have been most grateful for. In high school, people don't know who they are yet. They don't know what they want to do with their lives, who their friends really are, or even what they are going to do next week. We were those typical people.

We didn't know any of those things, but you made certain that through all of it if one thing were to always stand true, it was that you were always there for me. And you were. You were the person that went through some of the toughest obstacles with me. You always picked me back up, dusted me off, and said, "okay what do we do next?" You pushed me to be my best self at every turn and every time I didn't think that I was good enough, pretty enough, or smart enough, you made sure through your words and actions that I was, in fact, all of those things.

But that was just high school. When we got to the real world, things changed. But change is a good thing.

When we both finally got to college, it was a whole different ballgame. We had made new friends, chose different majors, and...

My first two years of college were the most difficult by far. I didn't know who I was, what I wanted to be, and the stress of college came tumbling down on me. I began to fall into a dark hole, that for a long time, I was not able to see the light at the end of it. I started skipping classes, I stopped skiing, which was unheard of for me, and I just stopped taking care of myself. No one noticed what was happening with me.

Everyone just thought that I stopped skiing because I needed to focus on school, or that I wasn't actually skipping class, or that, "Oh, she isn't putting herself together anymore because she doesn't feel the need too," but that was not the case. I was falling into a depression and my anxiety had taken ahold on my life to where I felt like I couldn't do anything to stop it.

No one saw it. No one noticed it. Except for you.

You knew what was happening, you knew that this was not me, and you knew that you couldn't watch your best friend self-destruct. You did what you knew you had to do for me. You got me the help that I needed and you made sure that I stuck with it. You asked me every week if I had done what I needed to do to stay mentally fit. When I hadn't, you wouldn't get frustrated with me, or angry, you would sit down and just talk to me — about my day, what I did, what I still need to do, what I am going to do this weekend.

You saw what was happening and refused to let me be anything but my best.

Now today, you are still my person. You are the one that I will always turn to for advice, the one that I know has my back in any situation. and you will always be my best friend. If I don't say it enough, thank you, Abby Neef. Thank you for being exactly who you are and exactly what I need.

Sincerely,

Your best friend