I'm the kind of person who really struggles to make friends. I am very shy and awkward at times and I have a lot of social anxiety. I feel like I need everyone's approval in order to be a good person. I always worry about what other people think about me so I put on a facade that I think would make them like me.

However, there is a small group people where I could truly be myself around and not have to worry if I am being too awkward, annoying, or stupid. Around them I could totally let loose and be my silly, weird self. This small group of people are my friends from back home. They have tolerated so much of my nonsense over the years but without them I wouldn't have made it to where I am today. Our friendship has been so strong that it even lasted through high school when we attended different schools. Although I was miserable and alone at my high school the occasional mall trips, birthday parties that we hyped up like children, and sleepovers made me happy. I love you guys so much this article goes out to each of you. I also randomly generated the order in which I would talk about each friend so I'm not showing favoritism towards you guys.

Rob, oh the fun we've had together. I have to say that the times that I have spent at your house have been some of my most enjoyable. Your mom has great hospitality and I always feel right at home at your house. And your brother definitely adds to the fun. I love all the texting we do through Instagram. Of all my friends you are definitely the best at keeping in touch. I loved sharing the fun of my favorite video games with you and Santino.

One of my favorite parts of our friendship is our stupid talk and how we could find any phrase funny and repeat it over and over and still find it funny years later. You know what I mean "Text Rob", "Something and such", "Put gluten in the sweet, gluten-free cupcake", "Los Angeles Angel", "New Jersey Devil", "gluten-free snacks", "The Trade", "chocolate coins", "gluten", "silly-act disease", "ROBBY!!!", "VEGETABLES NOW!!!", "Trivia Crack girl", "Sargent Asshole", and all of the other names we made that are too vulgar.

What I also love about our friendship is the whole girlfriend situation. What I mean by this is that you are my only friend to have ever had a girlfriend and she was probably the only girlfriend any of us will ever have. You having a girlfriend is likely the closest I'll ever get to having a girlfriend so I felt it was a good alternative. "The Alexa Fiasco" as I coined it was one of my favorite 8 month stretches. I loved coming home from school and checking your Instagram and seeing your next post with Alexa and then putting an obnoxious comment stating how what you wrote about each other was illogical. I loved it when we talked like idiots about your experiences and most of our aforementioned phrases came to be. And then there was "The Breakup" where she ended 8 months of love for seemingly no reason and then that lead to "The Argument" on Instagram.

You were really sad that all of that happened but I was happy to help you through it and I feel that that helped us bond. I really enjoyed giving you advice on how to talk to girls even though I never had a girlfriend and wasn't so great at talking to them either. After "The Breakup" two and a half years ago I feel that we have really bonded over the fact that we are single and how we want to have girlfriends but the two of us couldn't be more inept at interacting with girls. I really enjoyed listening to your relationship ambitions and telling you my own. I miss hanging out with you Rob. We only hung out once in the past two years and I hope we will hang out again on one of our breaks. I hope you get a girlfriend soon and as always "Text Rob".

Brian, you are one of the sweetest friends I have. You are like the only friend that I never argue with. I will never forget our time in Mrs.Antenna's group together. That's where we first met and that's where our friendship came to life. All our silly games and conversations in that group were priceless. I loved our time in middle school and you were a big help in making 8th grade the best year of my life.

I remember us playing Wizard 101 one night up until 4 in the morning on a school night doing every single side quest in Wysteria. You were the only person I ever met that loved to play Wizard 101 and I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to enjoy that amazing game with someone else.

I can't get over how chill you were about about school back then compared to how crazy I was about it. You know how I would compare every single grade that we ever got. I especially got crazy over the solar system test back in 8th grade science. I thought that test was so hard and you like "chill out bro it was easy" and then I said "th-th-there's no way that this idiot is going to get a better grade than me" cause I was so scared that you did better than me, I was a wreak back then. You were so confident about everything to the point where my mom would say to me "If only you had one tenth of Brian's confidence".

I was so lucky to have you in all my classes in 7th and 8th grade. Sometimes I felt like your parent back in middle school. Remember when I was up your ass about the Unit 4 math test that you missed and were supposed to retake but didn't want to and thus you never reminded the teachers to give you the exam? Even to this day I still bring up that test.

Also you were absent so much and I was like "come on Brian you're going to miss school for that?". On two occasions in 8th grade you missed an entire week of school and I missed you being next to me in Communication Arts with the Marges, or Communication Farts as Dennis called it. I remember always urging you to come to school, even when we were in separate high schools and I called you Mr. 81% attendance.

Also I have to thank you for how you have been with my mom. It was so nice of you to see her in the hospital. Also you're my only friend who knows how it feels to have a really sick parent and we really connected through that. And to finish off I have to say that Belle is the only word I know that suits you well.

Vito, the first friend I ever made. We've been through it all brother. Ever since we sat on the bus together in preschool or "Gingerbread" as it was called. I can't believe that we are such close friends even though we were only ever in the same class in 1st grade.

You are definitely one of my most loyal friends. You stood up for me when I was bullied, you provided me with the protection that I was unable to provide myself by being too afraid to defend myself. What I love about you is how fearless you are when it comes to other people. You don't tolerate anyone's bullshit and that's a skill that I would love to pick up on one day. I love how uncensored you are and how you speak your mind. When I go to your house I love your family's hospitality and I know that I am considered as part of the family. We have been through so much together it is insane.

What I really enjoyed was seeing you every single day when we were at camp together with Matt as counselors in the summer between Freshman and Sophomore year. Although we attended different high schools that camp was an excellent alternative. I remember how we had lego car drag races and demolition derbies and played MLB Power Pros with the kids. We really bonded with those kids and our stupidity brought smiles to their faces. Also it was really nice watching you bond so well with Madelina, I was so proud of you and it was so cute how the two of you lit up when you saw each other. Also the arguments we had with Matt over that whole situation were ridiculous. I find it hilarious how upset we got over Matt mishearing something. Ah that camp was an experience.

We have hung out by far the most out of all of my friends. I especially loved playing madden franchise together. Remember how we won a super bowl together as the Giants and that wild NFC championship game against the Seahawks? Remember, "ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME", "4TH AND FUCKING GOAL MATE LET'S GET THE FUCKING STOP", "NOOOOOOO FUCK", "HOW DID HE MAKE THAT CATCH", "FUCKING BRETT HUNDLEY", "VITO, STOP IT WITH THE CURSING", "WHAT THE FUCK, RIGHT TO HIM AGAIN".

What was also great about our friendship was how we had similar problems and we helped each other get through them. Our last hangout before college was the epitome of this. We were both so scared of the transition into college but we helped each other get through it by talking about our fears together and offering advice. Also that last hangout by the way was my favorite hangout ever. Dave & Busters, Slenderman, New Super Luigi U, and a sleepover. We wouldn't do that much in a month much less a weekend.

Our relationship is so tight that in any situation I know that you are my ally. We agree with each other on almost everything and we rarely ever argue. So Vito, thank you so much for sticking with me throughout out entire lives. Even when I was miserable and lonely in Tech I could always count on you for a fun Friday night of playing madden, cursing, eating a whole package of cookies or chips, talking about all of our current and previous shenanigans with our other friends, and just having fun being best bros for life.

Kyle, you are one of my newer friends but I still feel we have had some great times worth writing about. I remember when I first met you in elementary school you always had a book in front of your face. Although I knew who you were for most of my life, we didn't become close friends until recently.

Upon hanging out with you these last two years I started to realize that you are a great friend too. You are really nice and a lot of fun to be around. One of my favorite memories with you was Vito's birthday party last year where you and Matt splashed water on each other.

I also really liked how you texted me whenever you had a problem with someone. This showed me that you trust me and value my input which really flatters me and I was always happy to help.

You are also really funny and some of your remarks are priceless. I like how you are always available to hang out and rarely make excuses. I think you, Vito, and I are a really good trio since we spent a lot of time together in sleepovers at Vito's house. I look forward to hanging out with you soon and I hope we could spend some more time together.

Vincenzo, I haven't really had a close relationship with you but I feel that I should mention you anyway. You are one of the coolest and most entertaining friends that I have. You are definitely the best at getting people to come to your parties. You even accomplished the nearly impossible feat at getting a girl to come to one of our parties. Of everyone you are definitely the best at making me laugh especially with the whole fiasco at Matt's 16th birthday party. I hope we get to become better friends in the future because some of the things you do are insane.

Matthew, we have had quite a journey together. We started off as acquaintances who studied for our social studies final with Brian and played tic-tac-toe at lunch in the end of 7th grade. But what really hit off our friendship was the solar system project back in 8th grade science. First I went to your house where we did almost nothing because we were too busy goofing around with your brother but then you came to my house and we got it all done and we were the only kids in the class to get an 100 on the project.

Ever since then we were friends through it all. One thing that I love about our friendship is all of the stupid things we have done together. You know, in the summer between Sophomore and Junior year when we were camp counselors when we got kicked out of camp, when we left Vito behind in the mall and laughed about how he had the worst "lost percentage" as you called it, and your 16th birthday party when I kicked you because you were distracting me in Mario Kart Wii.

Another thing is that I loved all of your birthday parties and how you hyped them up. It was hilarious how we would talk about your next birthday party even if it was 11 months away. Your birthday parties were so much fun because they would be the only time where all of our friends would get together and Chris Cangemi really made it a blast when we did "Dark Wrestling". Also you were the one that usually did all of the planning when we would hang out so if it wasn't for you I probably would've hung out with friends 60% less throughout these years.

I loved talking about football with especially since you are a Packers fan and I was a Vikings fan. We did our predictions together and now we are doing fantasy football so that's fun. I can't even believe how much effort I put into one of your birthday cards that showed the Cardinals win the super bowl to make you mad since they beat the Packers in the playoffs the year before.

Unfortunately we did have a lot of arguments throughout our friendship but that just shows how strong or friendship is since it lasted through all of that. Our phone calls in after school were always great conversations, especially when we talked about Michael and his grandma, and I miss them a lot. I also love the voice you make when you say "Hi guys my name is Matt", "Burgers", "Basketball", and "Sports".

Our time in camp was also some of the most fun that I have had with you. Especially when the two of us were counsellors for the same group. That was the summer where we had the power pros tournament, raced the kids in the hallways, and named all of the objects in the sign language book. I especially miss Kenny the kite. Getting kicked out was such a sad moment for the both of us and we thought that it would end our friendship but now I look back at that incident as a funny story. I hope you are enjoying TCNJ and I hope to visit you there one weekend.

I love you guys so much. Thanks for sticking with me throughout all of these years. Your friendship gave me joy and laughter which didn't come so easily while I was in high school away from you guys. I'm sure our friendship will last throughout college and the rest of our lives. I can't wait to hang out with you guys more and make many more ridiculous and hilarious memories.