I sat on my bed, tears streaming down my face, barely old enough to be wearing the mascara that was running down my face. Another “friend” that turned out to be someone I had mistakenly placed my faith in. Through highschool, I had three amazing friends. But, time changes everything. People change. People make mistakes. People grow apart. As people came and went, it got to the point that I wasn’t expecting to find that “best friend” - that person I clicked with.

Flash forward to my freshman year of college. I was intoxicated with the hundreds of new people and new opportunities. After rushing, I was placed next to almost 60 absolutely amazing women. I quickly made some of the best memories of my life with girls who mean the world to me. There was a girl in my pledge class that had been in my new member group that I had not spent much time with until her birthday dinner. Originally, I was overwhelmed by her loud, bubbly, almost aggressive personality. She was someone that I never would have met if it weren’t for our sorority, someone that I never saw myself growing close with.

Tammy is everything that I am not. She is emotionally strong, focused, sarcastic, brutally honest, and the most selfless person I have ever met. I have my selfish moments. I have my moments where I let the world bring me down. I’m afraid to tell people what I think sometimes… or most of the time. I’m painfully literal, which makes joking around a little hard with me. We could not be more different.

But, that’s why she is my best friend. When I’m not strong enough for myself, she knows how to be strong for me. When I’m insisting on being upset about something, she reminds me to loosen up. She tells me what I have to hear, not what I want to hear, because she knows that that is the only way to make sure that I understand. When I decide to make situations all about me, she lets me know that there are other people I have to think about outside of myself. On the other hand, there are times that I have to make sure she doesn’t try and take on the world too quickly. I swear she thinks she’s invincible - doing one thing after the other without ever letting anyone see her sweat - so I have to remind her that it’s ok to let her guard down sometimes. She does a million things for other people but forgets to do things for herself sometimes, so I make sure to tell her that she deserves the best because if anyone does, it’s her.

For over a year now, there has not been a moment that I haven’t reached out my hand and she was there to take it. There has not been a day that I haven’t looked up and saw her walking in front of me or turned around to see her following close behind. We both hit a rough patch lately, but it was ok because we were in it together - she is there for me and I am there for her no matter what. I have called her more times than I can count at all times of the day crying because I trusted a boy a little too much. She let herself into my dorm room last year, woke me up, and proceeded to drag me to Franklin Street just because she wanted a smoothie… Not to be confused with the time that she randomly wandered into my room while I was in the shower and handed me ice cream over the curtain.

I could name a million times that I realized that she was my person. Every single time she almost killed us while driving. Our impromptu naps when we realized it was 3 pm and we were too exhausted to go out. Late night agora while watching Grey’s Anatomy. Watching her accidently throw her phone to the bottom of the lake. The way she doesn’t hate me when I eat her food. I could go on and on, but I won’t, because she remembers all of these times just as well as I do.

There isn’t a day that I remember that we haven’t talked, at least for a minute or two just to say hey, and I hope that day never comes.