Who knew that my first day of kindergarten, I would meet my best friend for life. We spent our whole childhood together, every birthday party, class field trip and summer vacation. We would run through your backyard on an “adventure,” using a tree swing to jump across raging rivers and fill our backpacks with snacks for our long journey. We had sleepovers and played dress up and rode our bikes to school. Your house was my second home and mine was yours. As we grew and went to middle school, our friendship never changed. Like in sixth grade on our birthdays when we would shanghai each other and dress each other in crazy clothes for school. I never dreamed of spending any time apart from you, but life had other plans. After seventh grade, my family moved 2,000 miles away to Kansas City.
There is nothing I am move thankful for than the fact that we remained friends despite the distance. It’s hard being in a place where everyone has their childhood friends by their sides when you are so far away. Snapchat and FaceTime have become our standby in play dates and shopping trips over the years. For seven years, I only got to see you through a screen. But Thursday, I got to see you, my best friend, in real life for the first time since we moved. It felt like a dream at first, but it was like nothing had changed, we picked up right where we left off and it was exactly like we had known each other all our lives, which we have. I would give anything to be able to see you everyday like we used to. We have grown and changed, gone to college and become adults. I would love to know what our friendship would have been like in high school and the memories we would have.
So best friend, as well as being a celebration of our friendship, this is a thank you. Thank you from sticking by my side for 15 years, for being my number one. Our FaceTime dates in the past seven years have meant so much to me and knowing that our friendship has made it 2,000 miles. I can’t wait to see what the future brings and how our friendship grows as we grow. We are both in college now and the real world is in our grasp, soon we will be celebrating our weddings and starting families, careers and more. I hope that we are by each others side through all of that just like we have been our whole lives.
Two thousand miles has only made us stronger, whether we're five or 95, I know you'll always have my back. I love you best friend, I always have and I always will.
