Dear Brooke,

First off, I want to say thank you. Thank you for being an amazing friend. Thank you for driving me home late at night even though it’s like a 45-minute roundtrip. Thank you for being you.

When I met you a year ago, we were both buzzing from our first bid day. We had just accepted our bids and spent an amazing day with our new sisters. We sat next to each other on the way back giggling about how great of a time we were having. I’m almost 100% sure you were buying things with our letters on them, less than 12 hours after accepting your bid. I thought it was the funniest thing and you told me you had been looking at things since the first night of recruitment. I admired your dedication and I hoped you would become my friend. Little did I know you would be so much more than that.

At one of our service events, we became close. It was 3 a.m. and we had really just started our friendship. You showed up to the train stop with no jacket because we were getting one at the service event. It was 3 a.m., in Fall in Chicago and everyone who showed up thought you were crazy, which you are. Who shows up with no jacket that early in the morning in the fall? You do.

I’m not sure of the timing, but our new member sleepover was another big step in our friendship. We spent all night laughing and crafting and of course, the infamous black box incident. I sincerely hope that we never forget that incident. It’s probably one of the highlights of our friendship.

I can’t think of a time where I didn’t spend the entire time laughing with you. You’ve been such an amazing friend. You’ve supported me when I dropped from our sorority. You’ve been there when I needed to go to Blaze far too many times or drop far too much money in Francesca’s. Do you remember that one time we walked in and the saleswoman recognized us and asked what event we were shopping for that time? We both just looked at each other and died. That’s how you know we go into that store way too much. It’s gotten so bad that we started a tally of how many times we get off at the Chicago/State red line or go to Blaze. By the way, super proud of us for not going to the Water Tower yet this year.

You have been nothing less than a blessing. You’ve listened to me rant about that one person way more than I should. You make me laugh even when we simply go grocery shopping for Halloween Oreos, oatmeal, and plastic silverware. I’m convinced that you’re an 8-year-old in a 19-year old’s body but I couldn’t imagine you any other way. Thanks for donuts, pizza, chicken strips, mac and cheese, Icees, bagels, Scramble, and any other food we’ve shared in the past year. The conversations we’ve shared over these meals have been priceless.

I can’t wait to spend a week with you in Hawaii this Thanksgiving and a week traveling the US in search of Harry Potter World and New Orleans this spring break!

Thanks for being the best friend ever and making me so proud to be myself. I love ya, Brooke and I can’t wait to see where we take this friendship in the next few years.