To the friend who saved my life

Thank you. I know I tell you this all the time but seriously thank you. Without you being there for me I would not be here today. You saved my life.

I remember that year when you first moved here in 7th grade. If you had asked me then if I thought we would ever be friends I would probably have said no. Then we both joined track and that marked the start of our friendship. Over the next few years our friendship strengthened. since both of us ran all year round we had a lot of time to really get to know each other. We became pretty good friends. By junior year I felt pretty comfortable talking to you about pretty much anything. I could tell you anything and you always kept it to yourself. You were always there for me when I needed someone. When senior year came I had expected it to be easy and I thought we were as close as we were going to get. I was wrong.. about both of those things. Senior year was one of the hardest years for me. Academically I involved myself in a program specifically designed for students interested in the medical field. I took all honors courses and the amount of work we had was intense but nothing I couldn't handle. Academics wasn't the hard part of my senior year. At the time my parents were in the middle of divorcing, I was moving, school was tough socially for me and I was dealing with some mental health issues. One night I thought about suicide for the first time in a very long time. I had my heart set on completing suicide and I wasn't about to change my mind. Then I started talking to you. For an hour you took my mind off the idea without even knowing what I was going to do but you knew I was upset. You told me that we should go for a walk or a drive and just talk about whatever I needed to. The part that means the most to me is that you actually followed through with it. Two days later we met up and we talked. I talked to you about everything going on and you just listened. I even felt comfortable enough to tell you what was going through my mind two days earlier and you listened and remained calm. When we got back near our cars we sat at a picnic table and talked more about graduation and the future. When that was over you told me something that I had never heard before. You told me that you didn't like that I had ever thought about suicide. You told me I was important, that I mattered. You told me you cared and that you would always be there for me and you meant it. You hugged me and told me it was okay to cry. And trust me I cried a lot from that moment to the moment I fell asleep. I wasn't crying because I was sad or upset, i was crying because it was the first time I had someone actually willing to listen and to actually tell me how important I was. You were there for me and all you had to do was listen but not only did you do that but you offered me a shoulder to cry on, you gave me hope that everything would be okay and you saved my life. I'm not exactly sure how to thank you for this but I'm going to spend my whole life making it up to you. Please never forget how important you are not only to me but to everyone else in this world. You are my best friend and I'm so happy I met you. You mean the world to me.