When you go away to college you miss your family. You miss your friends. But how about your best friend's family? People that have known you every step of the way. From elementary school to high school, and now to the latest chapter of your life.

I'm lucky enough to call my best friend's parents Mom and Dad 2.0. My BFF's siblings are just as lovable and annoying to me as they are to him. Now, having been away from them for a long period of time, I realize just how special this bond has been, and how lucky I am to have it.

So, to my extended family, I say, thank you.

Thank you for being there for me.

Thank you for being a phone call away for the first few nights I was ever home alone and something creaked in the middle of the night. Thanks for providing a place to have dinner when my parents were still working (or cooking something I didn't like). Thank you for being shoulders to cry on when my own family's were too tear-soaked. Thank you for always having an open door — literally and figuratively, because don't forget I have your house key!

Thank you for never letting me slack.

As much as I am part of your family, so are my own parents and siblings. And like any close-knit community, word gets around fast. Thanks for being a second set of parents and calling me out on my crap. For holding me accountable, whether it be a bad test grade, a stupid decision, or being generally lazy. Whenever I wouldn't want to listen to what my parents had to say, chances are you were saying the same thing back, and then I had no choice but to listen. However, I'm glad I did because you are all always right.

Thank you for tag-teaming my bestie.

Let's face it: as much as we all love our best friends, we also love giving them a hard time. Who better to back us up for calling out our friend than their family? Got a prank in mind? Call up their siblings. Want to knock some sense into them about the latest person they're dating or haircut they're getting? I'm sure their parents will have some two cents to thrown in. Do this wisely because I'm sure your best friend will be calling up your siblings the second they want to play some tricks of their own!

Thank you for being "test-run" parents.

I know how my best friend thinks. Likewise, his parents know how my parents think. Once in a while I have something going on and I'm not sure how my parents will react to it. That's what my best friend's parents are for. They can be my springboard for testing parental reactions. A vital source for the budding young adult.

Thank you for a lifetime of memories.

From all-night summer BBQs, impromptu combined family getaways, and annual Christmas morning breakfasts, nothing can ever come close to all our times together. You know more about me than I do myself and I wouldn't want to have it any other way!

To sum it up...