To say my cousin is my best friend is a huge understatement.

From a young age we were always close. Sleepovers at meme and papa’s, always sticking by each other at family parties, to being there for one another. I grew up with no sisters, so she was more of a sister to me than a cousin.

She is always such a positive person in my life. I don’t really remember us ever fighting, maybe we did but I just can’t recall a time.

This summer I had two major life events occur.

For starters, I moved states. Now coming up to Wisconsin knowing nobody was pretty rough, yet she managed to help me through it and got me out of the house when I needed it most. Even if it was something simple as to her house, I spent a good half my summer over there and loved every moment of it.

The other thing was being reunited with my brother. At the end of my trip I realized there wasn’t any other person I would have rather brought along to help calm my nerves or be my photographer/videographer other than her.

She’s always been the best at giving advice and keeping secrets. Whenever I have boy troubles, it’s safe to say she’s the first one I go to. Staying up late and talking with her is one of my favorite things to do.

Whenever I go over to her house now, I always know to keep clothes and makeup in my car because chances are, if she didn’t ask me to sleep over before I got there she was going to ask when I was there. I call it my “emergency sleepover kit.”

It’s the little things in life I love doing with her.

She came with me to get my industrial piercing and even though she refused to hold my hand, but eventually gave in, just having her there was calming.

I went over to her house and just brought my nail polish and a horror movie and that was enough to satisfy us both for the evening. Letting me tag along with her and her friend to see Finding Dory, leaving ten minutes before a movie starts even when the theater is twenty minutes away, setting off my anxiety for needing to be fifteen minutes early to everything. Yet she managed to calm me down and make me forget about it all.

We can just sit in her room with both of us on our phones and manage to have one of the best nights.

It's literally the little things that make us close.

You help keep my head up when I doubt myself the most. You are there when I need a shoulder to cry on. You are one of my main sources of happiness in my life. You are one of my biggest cheerleaders when I have amazing news. You mean so much to me!

She’s my friend, my cousin, my sister, and most importantly my best friend.