To my best friend:

I get to see you in 18 days! Can you believe it? It's been almost a year and a half since I've seen you, so I am beyond excited to spend the week with you. It's hard to live 615 miles away from you, it really is, but I'm insanely thankful that we've kept up our relationship through the distance. We've been friends for almost six years now, and in only 18 days, we get to be together, just like when we met. You are a beautiful, incredible person that I love with all of my heart. You're the sugar to my tea, the peanut butter to my jelly, the Monica to my Rachel, and I could not be more thankful.

You're incredibly intelligent and I love to learn new things from you and experience the world from a different pair of eyes. I love laughing with you and hearing about your latest adventures and experiences each and every day. I love our FaceTime dates and I love the way we aren't afraid to message each other 20 times in a row until the other person responds.

I love talking politics with you and sharing each other's thoughts and ideas on current events. I love cringing at old photos and Facebook statuses, and swearing that we'll never be that way again. (Although we both know that in a few years we'll cringe about our current selves.) I love you more than words can say, and more than I could possibly ever write about in this article.

These next 18 days need to fly by. I cannot wait to go hiking with you, to watch movies with you, and to travel all over the western part of North Carolina with you. I cannot wait to stay up late laughing our heads off over the dumbest stuff. I cannot wait to take photos with and of you, and to annoy everyone on social media with our posts. I cannot wait to be together again, just like the old days.

I miss those times, and I miss you with everything inside of me. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome that we get to talk every day and FaceTime and call each other, but it's just not the same as being with each other. I miss spending all day together, running around the neighborhood and popping in and out of each other's houses. I miss sitting on the swings and cracking up over nothing. I miss taking cringe-inducing pictures of each other in our Aeropostale clothes. I miss "writing novels" to each other on your phone when we didn't want people to know what we were talking about. I miss it all so much, and in 18 days, we get to relive it all.

We get to make new memories, write new "novels", take new pictures (albeit wearing better clothes this time.) We get to spend seven whole days with each other -- that's 168 hours! I plan to make each and every hour count, because time like this is precious. It's hard only getting to see you once or twice a year, but regardless, you're my best friend -- always and forever. I want you to know that I pray for you every day, and I thank The Lord for our friendship.

I want nothing but the best for you in everything -- your schoolwork, your relationships, your family, your social life, all of it -- and I'm so glad you confide in me with all of that and keep me updated on your life. I'm so glad that, even in spite of the distance, we've been able to keep up this amazing, loving friendship through all of these years. Words cannot describe my gratitude for you and the memories and relationship that we share.

I hope desperately with all of my heart that this wonderful friendship will last until we're old ladies living together in a senior community. I want to be each other's maids-of-honor and I want our kids to be best friends. I want to spend our twenties living together in an apartment and doing mundane tasks like grocery shopping and cooking together. I want to be there for you when you think you can't take your children anymore, and I hope- no, not hope- know that you feel the same way towards me. I cannot wait for the next eighteen days to pass by so I can see you again. After that, I cannot wait for the rest of our lives.

All of my love,

Your best friend.