My childhood best friend.

You who know everything there is to possibly know about me. You who helped craft me into the person I am today. I have a couple of things to say to you.

First of all, thank you. Thank you for knowing and being an integral part of every embarrassing story from my childhood and accepting that at some point, what I thought I was doing was cool. Whatever I was doing was decidedly never cool, but you understood the logic behind the choices and that was enough. Thank you for never letting me laugh alone. You were always by my side whispering ridiculous things in my ear when we weren’t supposed to be talking. We were never good at being quiet. Thank you for literally saving me from destiny and borderline dragging me towards a new fate, one that is radically more colorful, I am sure of it. Thank you for sharing every single part of your life with me, or, at least, thank you for not stopping me when I crash landed in the middle of everything that surrounded you and made up my mind that I wanted pieces for myself. Thank you for letting me experience having a little sister. I still think of her as my own to this day.

Thank you for letting me become a mermaid in the pool in your backyard, the endless supply of chocolate covered raisins I never failed to help myself to and for accepting that there was nothing I could possibly do to sleep past nine in the morning. The books that found themselves to your side table did not go unnoticed by my early morning boredom. Thank you for accepting my general lack of on-land coordination and for nipping at my heels when I found out I was a lot better in the water. You kept me on my toes and I am one thousand percent sure you could swim endless laps around me now. Thank you for being yourself, unapologetically. Thank you for sharing that skill with me. Because of your freedom and patience with me, I can happily express that I am a massive sap with oodles of nostalgia tucked into my young bones and that I love you.

Second, I am so proud of you. I shouldn’t feel inclined to add an expletive in here to let you know just how proud I am of you, but I do. I will attempt to restrain myself. You have taken your world by storm and watching you grow into the person you are right now has been an incredible ride. I truly believe there is nothing you cannot do and everyday, you are proving me right. Just knowing that at some point in our lives, we were inexplicably tied makes me feel like I have witnessed greatness being born or thrust upon or whatever that saying is. You are a supernova filled with kindness and so much potential— it almost scares me a little bit. Use your power for good, not evil and all that superhero movie stuff. We always did like musicals more. Specifically ones starring Zac Efron, but that’s neither here nor there.

Okay, so I know this has been just a love fest and I do have a tendency to rant. But it’s all true. I love you, you big goof, and I always will. Whether we’re in North Carolina or New York or London or Scotland, you’ll always be in my heart. I’m stopping before I quote more "Tarzan."