Dear friends,

I just wanna say we had some great times together and made some pretty unforgettable memories. Without you, I would not have survived high school. You made waking up everyday at 7:00 bearable.

When I was in high school, I remember always hearing older people say that high school was the best years of their life and that they would give anything to go back. I never understood why they said this because high school, at the time, felt like a prison. But looking back on it now it really was not all the bad.

It is crazy to think how much we have been through together. We were there during everyone's awkward freshman stages and when everyone started to grow up, mature and find their way in the world.

If there is one thing I miss about high school it is definitely you guys. I finally understand why people say that they miss high school and want to go back. I miss certain parts such as friends, some teachers, track, and musical, but I definitely do not want to go back. We can not go back in time in life; we must live in the present and continue to move forward. You can be nostalgic of and appreciate your past while still living in the moment. You can love your hometown and love visiting it while still not wanting to live there.

There is nothing I enjoy more than catching up with all of you over breaks from school and hearing what everyone is up to and how everyone's lives are going. It is weird having to always catch up because I no longer see you everyday to know exactly what you are doing. For all I know, you could move to Alaska or get married randomly and I would have no idea. I was sad when we all said goodbye to each other once we graduated. It was okay though, because we still had the summer together and we lived it to the fullest. Once we all left for school, I felt like that was it and we would never see each other ever again or very rarely, if we did. Then winter break came and it was almost like summer all over again. Then winter break ended and even though it had only been a few weeks, it felt like a lifetime. Finally, spring break rolled around and though our time together was short we made the most of it. Now we have summer and I can't wait to spend it with you guys making memories, hanging out, staying up late, going on adventures, having fires, and late nights at our usual hangout spot.

I thought that after we graduated that it was the end of seeing you guys but thankfully we are all still in school and have breaks so that we can see each other on a regular basis. We still have that, but what happens when we graduate? What happens when we are done with school and move again from our small town and get full time jobs that do not allow us to come back ever except for maybe once or twice a year? What happens then? What happens when our four years are up and we no longer are just kids anymore? Right now we technically all still live in the same town even though we do not spend most of our time there. The town where we all grew up together is still our town and it is still our home, we are just away at school. What happens when it is no longer our home, it is no longer where we live, and it is time for us to move on in life? And the town now belongs to kids that we do not even recognize or know the names of.

I will tell you what happens. Things will be great because that means that we are pursuing our dreams and striving for our goals. It will be sad but it will be necessary because one thing I know about life is that you cannot live in the past. Maybe we will get lucky and somehow move to the same place and be like Monica and Rachel from friends. Or maybe we all will move to interesting places and visit each other. Even though we might take different paths in life we all start on the same path together and that bond form that journey we made will make us inseparable. So whether we see each other every day or every 5 years or not at all and just watch each other's lives play out over social media, which hopefully will not be the case for most of us.

Friendship is not about about how long you have known someone or how often you see them. It is about the the people that were always there for you and never left your side even when you felt like the whole world was against you.

Love,

Your Friend