God didn't mean for us to go through life alone. He taught us to love on one another, and to lean on one another because we are stronger together than we are apart. Not all friendships are made equal. Most friends come and go, but there are a select few that stick around for good. These friends are forever friends and they come in all different shapes and sizes. Sometimes they look like siblings, sometimes they look like parents, and sometimes they look like the people who started out as friends but have become like family.

I have been blessed with some of the best friends anyone could ever ask for. The type of friends that would drop anything to be there if I needed them. The type of friends that would literally leave work, or cut a trip short because something happened and they felt like they needed to be with me.

I don't thank you guys nearly enough for everything that you do, but here is just a small summary of some of the many, many things I have to thank you for.

Thank you for challenging me.

Most of us have a lot in common, and we also have a significant amount of things we disagree on. Some people may think of this as a bad thing. I see it as a good thing. When you agree with someone on every single thing you talk about, you may get along great at first, but the relationship has little depth beyond that point. A true friend challenges your ideas and engages with you. Allowing your ideas to shape one another, so you can grow. You all have always done this for me. You are willing to sit there and talk with me about the big stuff, and you tell me when I'm being stubborn and I tell you when you are and because of that I think I have become a stronger more intelligent person.

Thank you for inspiring me.

Thank you for making me want to be more like you. I have watched you grow into the most incredible people, and watching you grow makes me want to be half as amazing as you are. I have watched you all fall, and then I have you watched you pick yourselves up and become an even stronger, more beautiful version of yourself then I could have ever imagined.

I've watched you pick degrees, and then change your degrees, and then maybe change them one more time. I've watched you break up with significant others, and I've talked to you about your fears about moving, or starting a new job. You make me want to be a better person. To take the next step, to express myself the way they have, to be firm in who I am. To be the best version of myself that I can be.

Thank you for always being there.

Thank you for being there whenever I needed you. Thank you for listening to me talk for hours and hours about something you have already heard a million times. Thank you for getting angry with me when I'm angry, and sad with me when I'm sad. Thank you for understanding that sometimes I don't want to talk. That sometimes words wont fix what's happening and that I just want you to play with my hair, or paint a picture with me.

Thank you for making me laugh

I mean seriously laugh, the deep belly laughs that make your stomach hurt. Thank you for saying the most inappropriate things at the most appropriate times, and for making the goofiest faces that force me to smile every time. Thank you for understanding that even the most serious of times call for a little bit of humor, because not every moment needs to be a hard one.

Thank you for accepting me for who I am.

You are the people who have taken me for who I am. You love me despite my crazy. Thank you for accepting who I am and encouraging my dreams. Thank you for supporting me in every great and horribly stupid decision I make (well at least most every). Thank you for not judging me when I act like a dork, and for not making fun of my words come out jumbled and I don't make any sense. You never try to change me into someone that I am not and that is one of the greatest gifts you could ever give me.

Lastly,

Thank you for being you.

You are perfect just the way you are, and I couldn't be happier to have you in my life. Thank you for being my goofy, funny, strong, amazing friends who are just as beautiful on the inside, as you are on the outside. I know we aren't perfect. We fight, and drive each other crazy. We've all had our moments. But in the end, we will always be there for one another, and for that I couldn't be more thankful. I only hope that I am as good of a friend to you as you are to me.