Dear Town Friends,

It’s been almost a year since I penned a sort of “open letter” to you about our friendship about how important each of you are in so many facets of my life. I wrote that note as a way of subtly thanking you guys for all of the years we’ve had together and reflecting on how much had gone on and changed during that time span. As crazy as it sounds, I think even more has gone on and changed in the last year alone! As a result, I figured it was time for a “letter to my homies 2.0” type of note. Here it goes.

I’d like to argue that, over the past year, we’ve grown both as individuals and as a group more than any other time. One of us joined the Army. One of us went to live in Copenhagen. Two of us stayed right where we’ve always been but have dealt with crazy family health concerns or trying challenges and losses. The point is, we’ve all made major moves within the past year as we keep moving forward in life.

The one constant, as has been the case for over almost 10 years, is the three of you. No matter what form of communication we’ve needed to use over our time as friends- from AIM (LOL) to Facebook Messenger to handwritten letters, we’ve stayed connected and shown support. I know that every time I send you three a message, I will not only get a response, but a detailed and genuine response from each of you. It’s beyond comforting to know that I will always have three impartial and supportive friends who rise to the occasion every single time.

Constancy is what we’ve needed the most during the past year and I couldn’t be more thankful. There’s truly something about knowing that your friends will be there whenever you need them. It hasn’t mattered where we all are in the world or what time zone we’re in or how busy we are. You three always make time for each other and me, and it’s a blessing.

I miss guys often. It’s tough being away from your right-hand women when you’re at school, especially after spending all summer with you. Before our first soldier departed, literally, we had a great time. I’m thankful for all of the ice cream and froyo runs, the dinners with your families, the long car rides that led absolutely nowhere and the late night chats. I’m thankful for the nights we spent down the Cape, the trips we took to restaurants, the amazing photoshoots that turned into VSCO posts and the places we went exploring. I am extremely fond of the nights we spent laughing and crying around the Hyde Park fire pit that was summer vibes in a nutshell. I couldn’t have navigated this summer or the past 10 years without you, and I will forever hope you know how much you mean to me.

What I’ll never be able to fully explain to third-party onlookers of our friend group is how ridiculously important yet simple our car rides are. We never go anywhere. We never have a destination or a list of errands to get done. We simply drive around. We drive around our tiny suburban town for hours or we take a trip into Boston, but we never stop anywhere. We are just perfectly content with and focused on each other and the various stories and problems we need to share in the car. It’s the place to talk about the hopes and dreams we have and the moves we’re about to make. It’s the place to talk about mistakes we’ve made and failures we’ve had that we need to rally back from with the help of each other. It’s the place to talk about who we like and who we don’t and you can be sure that my three best friends know about who I don’t like.

In short, the lengthy conversations in the car with the windows rolled down and our favorite songs playing are the best times I’ve had. As we continue to move forward in life and create new paths and take advantage of new opportunities, I hope we still have those conversations in the car. I hope that even when we’re 90 years old and our eyesight is going, we still drive around. We’ve been together for this long and I’ll never be worried about where we’re going because I’ll always have you guys, and that’s a rare gift I’m lucky to have.

Love y’all,

Your Needham Friend