As a little girl, you don't think about how you and your mom could possibly be best friends when you're older. I mean, I knew we would always be able to get along, but I didn't think that at almost 20 years old, my mom is my best friend and favorite person in the world.

I'm not going to lie, in high school, my mom and I did not get along very much. I was a bratty teenager and she was trying to raise babies. Needless to say, the two did not mix very well at the time. Like every mother and daughter, we had our good moments and our not-so-good moments, however, our story is not your typical mother-daughter story. We have a different bond than most mothers and daughters do so, it makes sense that she became my best friend a lot sooner than most.

A little background on my mom and I. My mother is actually my step-mom. She met my dad when I was just 3-years-old and married him when I was 8. So, she's been in my life for the majority of it. From the moment we met, she's always told me that she fell in love with me long before she ever fell in love with my dad (it's because I was cuter than him), not really but, we just had an instant connection from the get-go. We had a bond that was like one I had never had with anyone before. She took my older brother and I in and raised us like her own children. Through all my stupid mistakes and every time I hurt her (unintentionally), she loved me unconditionally through it all.

That was just a preview into our relationship and reasons why my mom is my absolute best friend. As I've gotten older, we've gotten closer. And after having a rough 2016, her and I have never been better.

My mom is my best friend because she understands me. She's learned the lessons I'm learning in life now and has experienced the things I'm experiencing now, so, I can talk to her about anything. I can go to her for advice about absolutely anything. Now that I'm older, I can have a conversation with her that doesn't revolve around her lecturing me or having to be careful about what I talk about or tell her. My mom is known for not having a filter and it's grown on me over the last 17 years so naturally, I usually don't watch what I say around her anymore. It's actually really nice being able to say whatever and her finding it funny rather than getting in trouble for it. We can talk about the future now and how much fun we're going to have next year when I turn 21 (she likes to have fun). We talk about when I get married and have kids. Our relationship now is more about my being an adult and us planning to do fun, grown-up things.

My mom is my best friend because she's always been there for me no matter what. No matter how many times I've screwed up as a daughter or how many times we've gotten into fights, in the end she's always backed me up. She's supported my decisions, even when she doesn't agree with them. She's always stuck up for me before I learned how to stick up for myself or when I couldn't be there to. Through the good, the bad and the ugly, my mom has never left my side.

She's my best friend because she has always wanted what was best for me and more. She has never given up on me. She's always done her best to guide me down the right path with trying to understand that I'm growing up and need to learn some things on my own. Growing up, she was never too over-bearing and let me be who I wanted to be and be my own person.

My mom is more than just my mom or my best friend, she's my person. And as I've gotten older, I appreciate her so much more and I could not choose a better person for me.