March 6th and you know what that means…..it's the one and only Claire Kellen's 20th birthday! It's time to celebrate Odyssey style!

My sweet best friend, your second decade is complete! This is the sixth birthday of yours I get to celebrate with you and words can't even describe how thankful I am for the approximately 2,190 days I've gotten to spend with you by my side, and I look forward with great anticipation for the next 1,000,000,000…. (etc.) days we get to share.

In a perfect world, I would be at your doorstep right now riding a giraffe, telling you to hop on as Goodmorning by Bleachers plays, while we proceed to eat all the breakfast food we can stomach. The only problem with that is we are four hours apart and my giraffe guy bailed on me (again, ugh).

Today is such a celebration simply because your life is so worth celebrating! My heart celebrates at the thought of March 6th, 1998 because that's the day my best friend joined me on planet earth where our best adventures, sleepovers, concerts, road trips, and brunches take place. I am thankful every single celebratory morning you wake up so we can continue existing at the same time, living our lives together, being best friends.

I literally cannot imagine being best friends with anyone else!!!! Let's reminisce, shall we? (to those reading this who aren't Claire Kellen, welcome to our world)

Remember that one time we drove to Nebraska and back in a 72 hour period to be front row at the best Andrew McMahon concert in the whole world?

Remember the Borns concert we went to where I accidentally bought a shirt with a naked woman on it in my state of emotional distress?

Remember that one time we MET ANDREW MCMAHON!?!?!

Remember when we FaceTimed during our graduation rehearsal because our last names are so far apart in the alphabet?

Remember when you got your wisdom teeth out and were convinced you were Kylie Jenner? (even if you can't remember due to drugs, I remember, and I have videos)

Remember when we each drove like two hours each one random weekend just so we could have dinner together at the sketchiest Waffle House in all of existence in some random city I don't even remember during our freshman year of college?

Remember when I hatched out of a giant egg at the Dallas Zoo and you kept blasting Africa by Toto from your phone and we were the only people there because it was quite literally 30 degrees outside?

Remember that one time we went to Nebraska (again) to sit on Jack Antonoff's denim sheets in his bedroom? And then the next day that peacock followed us around the Omaha Zoo?

Remember when you drove all the way to College Station just so we could drive all the way to Austin to see Bleachers on a Tuesday? I do, because that was one of the best nights of my life, as all concerts are.

You are my favorite “remember when" and all of these little and big moments are the best times of my life because I get to share them with you, and I am so pumped that we get to have these moments and shenanigans forever!

Thank you for all of your love and encouragement, thank you for all of the times you've come to visit me at A&M, thank you for the playlists, the mornings you make me breakfast, thank you for driving me everywhere, always listening to me, and for buying me coffee, and thank you for being you, my best gal, my best friend, my person.

Thank you Jesus for these 20 years, and thank you Claire Kellen for letting me be a part of them. I cannot wait for when we are 70 years old still going to concerts and stuffing our faces with waffles afterward.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful, adventurous, compassionate, one of a kind best friend! You are the Ann to my Leslie, the Sookie to my Lorelai, and the Jess to my Cece. I love you!

(reunited in days!!!!!)