Dear Ben,

Next week will be your last here at the G and it is not something I'm ready to digest. I would beg you not to go, but sometimes it's the difficult moments which prove to be the most dynamic in giving you what is best. I hope that this transition will draw you up to greater heights and push you to achieve your highest goals. I will miss your charisma - like wildfire, it spreads infectiously throughout the scene of our adventures and times spent together. It is in this loss which I've realized how truly unique your impact on my life has been. I will miss your wit, like the edge of a knife, cutting through the deepest silence and raining laughter on my shade-soaked garden. Today, I write with all the knowledge of how you fit into my world.

Without you, the days will be prolonged by a sinking sun and it just won't be the same. I will see you in every plate of nachos, every time I go shoe shopping, in LeBauer Park and downtown's skyline. The places we've been will be colored by your presence as we've trekked to and from parties on West Market and drank obnoxious amounts of chocolate milk. We are friends for life and I won't wipe you from my mental hard-drive.

You introduced me to Mere and I cannot thank you enough.

I can't even formulate the words to express how it is I feel right now.

I'm shaken by the thought of your absence and warped by the image of your train leaving my station. Good friend - I will miss your half-smile and the way you stand in line while everyone hustles by. I will miss, terribly, how you make a fool out of yourself, but it's all fun and games. We've made towers from salt and pepper shakers, shared fruit pies, people-watched, ran at clowns, and walked countless steps to this place we now stand. Your slang makes me laugh and sometimes cringe. Your visor was both a hit AND a miss. You show only goodness and you radiate an air of "once once a friend, always a friend." You constantly make me aware of how crazy I am, but not too much. You let me know when I'm on the edge. You call to my attention the ways in which I could've done better. I've grown from this friendship and I can't wait to see you again. I will forever be on Team Nelson!

Your best friend,

Vaughan