To my best friends from high school,

It has been over four months since graduation, 142 days to be exact. In reality, this is not a very long period of time (especially with how time always seems to fly by), but to me, it has felt like ages since we have all been together. Since we may not all be able to meet face-to-face, I wanted to write this letter to tell you how much you mean to me.

There are so many amazing moments that we have been through together. We have laughed about teachers and classes and the little embarrassing moments. We have danced the night away at homecoming and prom. We have traveled to different countries together, walking around foreign cities and swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. We navigated the huge high school together in eighth grade and then supported each other through the stressors of senior year. There have been moments of pure joy and laughter and love. However, along with all of the incredible moments, there were some definite rough patches. There were disagreements and depressing times and periods when we didn't really talk, but we always knew how to work out our issues and go back to being best friends.

So much time has passed since I saw your faces around the halls of school every day. I miss all of you terribly, but I am so happy that you are where you are. You are thriving and succeeding and being the amazing people that you have always been. I am completely confident in your ability to make the world around you a better place, and I hope that you see that ability in yourself. I want you all to know that you are kind, intelligent, strong, compassionate, and incredibly beautiful, both inside and out. Never doubt yourself or let anyone try to change who you are.

There are a million reasons to be thankful to have you as a best friend. Thank you for picking me up when I was down, for supporting me through every moment, for loving me as much as you do. Thank you for laughing at my definitely not funny jokes and for listening to me as I quoted Hamilton practically every day of my junior and senior year. You all are the reasons why I am able to succeed and be the best version of myself, and I can not be more grateful to have you in my life.

So, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for everything.