As we both know, I moved away from my residing town eleven years ago, and I specifically kept in touch with you. When I moved again in 2016 during my high school graduation ceremony (yes, I skipped the function), you had been living out west for about a year, and we both know I was already aware of the situation because you stayed with me one night when you were passing through Illinois.
The problem I encountered with moving away and then moving back ten years later is that you and I are in entirely different stages life and places. I feel that, even though I'm a year older than you, you are having a more grown-up experience than I. We're both in college: I study, and you work. You make money, and I try my best to make A's. I write, and you are having a blast with all of you new friends.
Don't get me wrong. I want nothing more than for my little Mo' Mo' to be happy with all of her new people, but I wish I could say that I was also having fun without you because I'm not. I have no friends who live close to me anymore. Either they are living on their college campuses anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple of hours away, or they are living on the other side of the U.S. I have fun when I see my other friends, but the fun dies as soon as I leave. I guess I'm homesick because I don't surely know where I belong anymore.
Everybody moves on, and that is one of the hardest facts with which I have had to live ever since being back in Ohio. While I spent most of my life in Illinois, I have my favorite memories in Ohio with you. I don't consider one place or the other to be my home; you have seemed to make a home wherever you are, and that characteristic is a great trait to have. I cannot say I "clicked" with many people in my old state except the particular one or two people, but you seem to be doing well in the friendship category.
You are the most selfless person I know. The fact that you always let me wear your purple sequin dress when I came over and then giving to me as a going away present all at such a young age reveals just what kind of person you are. I was undoubtedly selfish back then because, in my memories, I only remember letting you wear it a couple of times if that.
I'm sorry for the way I was when I was little, but I know you still love me despite everything that happened. I don't know how I survive the days we don't talk just because I miss you. I know this is a real friendship because during the times we go months without speaking or Snapchatting, I still talk about you as my best friend.
Through miles and years apart, months at a time of not speaking, my selfishness, your selflessness, from writing letters and emails to Snapchatting almost daily, we remain friends to this very day. I remember our moms talking around year six or seven of living in different states, and they said, "Isn't it amazing that after all this time, the girls have managed to stay in touch?" At such young ages, it really is impressive that we had that determination and that we continue to have it.
Here's to the past fifteen years and many more years of friendship!
