To the friends that we leave behind at home when we are away at school,

The hardest part about being away for school is saying goodbye to who you leave behind. Some of us go away to school in hopes to make our "forever friends," but I am blessed enough to already have mine.

Having my best friends has its cons:

1. When I do come home to visit and hang out with them, parting ways at the end of our night consists of saying goodbye, not knowing when we will see each other next.

2. I am used to having them within a 5-mile radius, not 200. This means I can't pick up the phone to see if they are free whenever I want.

3. Some days are harder than others to be away from home and the people I would usually go to for some cheering up are not within reach.

4. As selfish as I want to be, my friends must continue their lives without me there. I don't want to miss out on anything, but I can't expect someone to put their life on hold, just because I am not there.

If you can relate to these words, then you are blessed enough to have the most amazing friends in your hometown. Not everyone is that lucky. We have people to go home t and we have people waiting for us to get back. We have people excited to see us and look forward to the time they get to spend with us.

To my best friends that I leave behind at home when I am away at school,

Thank you for always being there for me.

Thank you for cheering me up when I had my emotional breakdowns.

Thank you, Mary, Ellen and Sylvia, for giving birth to my best friends.

Thank you for helping me get over the setbacks that have been thrown my way.

Thank you for always making me laugh, even when I did not feel like smiling.

Even though I can't be there to enjoy every event that goes on, I know we will have many more opportunities in the future to make memories, because a friendship like ours will last a lifetime.

Even though we all have to continue our lives without each other and are heading down different paths/phases of our lives, I know we can always come back together like we were never apart.