Have you told your high school friends you love them today?

Because if you haven’t, you should do that right now. Seriously.

High school friends do not receive enough credit for everything they do for you. Think about it – a group of people who you grew up with, and I mean really grew up with. You transformed from an innocent kid, to an experimental teenager, to an experienced young adult with these people. Sure, maybe you never held the exact same group of friends from kindergarten to senior year, but the point is that these people were always around, and were in some way, shape or form a part of your life for this entire evolution. And once you finally did settle into your group of friends, whether it was in middle school during phys ed, or freshman year of high school while you suffered through biology with them, you were already connected in a sense, because you grew up together; in the same town, among the same people, basically already knowing things about them without actually knowing them.

I can honestly say these girls are my heroes, because I sure as hell wouldn’t have made it without them by my side.

There are a million reasons why I constantly thank God for uniting me with these girls. Here a just a few:

The connection doesn’t fade with distance.

It’s easy to lose touch with friends after going away to college. Even with all the different forms of social media that provide instant communication to one another from thousands of miles away, the fact is that our lives have changed dramatically. You’re away at a new school, meeting new people, getting involved with new organizations, and sometimes it’s hard to remember that you’ve left a completely different life behind you back at home. But the best thing about your friends is that this doesn’t matter at all. No matter how drastic your life changes from high school to college, whenever you’re reunited again, it feels like home, as though nothing has changed.

Finding a group of friends who makes it feels like the world has stopped is truly an amazing thing. No matter what’s happening in life, no matter how much time has passed, or how much distance has been put between us, we welcome each other back with open arms. Yes, we’ve all changed a bit, and grown up in some way, but our friendship is still as strong as ever, and that’s the one constant thing in my life that I know I can count on; wherever I may be, no matter how bad things may be going, I’ve got a home with these girls, and they know they’ve got one with me.

They’re rooting for you.

I don’t think anyone thanks their high school friends enough for this. This group of people have watched you grow up, and has been growing up beside you as well. They’ve seen how far you’ve come, all of the challenges you have beaten, they know the dream you’re chasing after, and they will be constantly supporting you as you take the journey to get there.

There is no competition with them; we aren’t all involved in or after the same things, which would have us pitted against each other. We all have unique interests and goals, and we know how hard each other have worked to get to where we are now. Instead of running on separate teams chasing after the finish line, hoping to come in first, we’re on the same team, passing the baton off towards one another as one of us reaches a new milestone in our journey.

They get you.

You have a special kind of bond with these girls – they know things about you that no one else could ever know, or could ever hope to find out. And I’m not talking about deep dark secrets, like that one kid you dated in seventh grade who was a HUGE mistake, or that you used to have a crush on collection of Bratz dolls. No, I’m talking about things that could only be observed and picked up from those who saw you every single day for four years; those who were there during arguably one of the hardest times in a person’s life, growing up from a kid to an adult, experiencing anything and everything for the first time, and trying to get a grasp on who you are on a person and what you want out of life. They know your strengths and weaknesses, your reactions to certain things, what your random faces and body language means. A lot of this is your character, how you act, and who you’ve become over the years. And your friends picked up on it from being around you all the time, from spending every day during the summer running around your neighborhood together, or every weekend sleeping in your basement watching (and rewatching) Mean Girls.

In a way, your high school friends probably know yourself better than you do. They know how you work, what makes you tick, why you do certain things. They know something is wrong when you’re biting your lip, they know you’re about to cry when you suddenly fall silent during a conversation, they know you’re happy about something when a certain sparkle lights up your eyes. They just get you, in a way that no one else could. It still amazes me how I text my best friend saying, “Guess what?” and she immediately responds already knowing the answer. Even from hundreds of miles away, after not seeing each other for weeks, these girls just know you too well.

The good, the bad, the ugly: they’ve seen it all. And they still love you.

Think about it: this group of people has been there for you through pretty much every embarrassing and devastating moment you’ve experienced. They were there during your awkward middle school phase, and they still let you sit with them at lunch. (Mine was probably ten times worse than yours. Think: braces and glasses.) They were there for your transition into high school, which at the time seemed like the scariest possible thing to ever happen to you.(“What do you mean our lunch periods are with all the grades?!”) They were there to listen to you vent about how hard biology was, or about how stressful varsity tryouts were. They were there when that one a$$hole broke your heart, calling an emergency sleep over on a school night to comfort you and help plan his demise. And for the long months afterwards, when you were still trying to get over him, they were there to help you put back the pieces.

From middle school to now, they’ve been by your side, catching you when you stumble over life’s obstacles, and every so often, when you fall flat on your face, they’re there to help you up, dust you off and send you back off into the world just to watch you do it all over again. But that’s the beauty of it – they know more hardships will come, and they are always prepared to be there for you when it happens.

These are moments and experiences that you are never going to forget, and they are times that you could have never gotten through without your friends. It’s a beautiful thing, really, having such a close bond with such an amazing group of people. It is friendship without effort – you don’t ever have put up a front with these girls, pretending things are okay when they’re not, because they have seen you at your absolute worst. You don’t ever have to exaggerate or brag, because they have also seen you at your best – you have nothing to prove to them. They respect you. They cheer you on. They catch you when you fall. And after all these years, they are always down for a girl’s night in.

I don’t know about you, but I sure as hell don’t thank my high school friends enough for being there for me throughout everything.

So, now that you’ve taken a trip down memory lane, teared up a bit reminiscing about your first crush,, cringed at that awful memory of your first hangover, and smiled thinking of all those pleasantly ignorant years spent navigating unfamiliar territory together, go tell them how much you love them, and how much you appreciate them. Because they’ve been with you through a lot, and guess what – they’re still here.