I hope that some people reading this have had the amazing journey I’ve been fortunate to have with one of my best friends. I hope everyone has the opportunity to grow up, learn about life, and live life with someone they are lucky enough to consider family. Friends are part of some of the most important relationships in your life, so, in honor of my time in reflection on one of the greatest friendships I have, here is a letter to a woman I consider to be one of the best people on the planet.

Dear Monica (AKA George),

I just want to start off by saying thank you. Thank you for sticking with me all these years, even when I annoy the crap out of you. Thank you for not judging me at any point, and loving me no matter who I am, and who I continue to grow to be. Thank you for understanding everything I say, without me even having to explain it. Thank you for always so easily picking up right where we left off, no matter how much time we have to spend apart. And, as a side note, thank you for always letting me swatch makeup samples on your arm because I’m forever running out of space on my own.

I’m thankful I could never describe our friendship with just one word. It’s so weird to me that as polar opposite people, I’ve also never been so similar to someone. It seems that no matter what we are talking about, we always share the same sentiment about everything. Maybe it’s because we grew up together, maybe it’s just complete coincidence that over the past eight years we’ve had the same interests in almost everything. We’re completely individual, but so much the same in too many ways (it’s kind of scary). It’s been quite the journey to see how many levels of our friendship has unfolded throughout the years, and I can’t wait to see where it goes.

We became friends in the weirdest way, as most of the best things in life happen unexpectedly, but I’m glad I found someone else who I could nerd out with about Harry Potter. Some of my favorite memories are literally just sitting in one of our basements watching any eight of those movies, no matter how many times we had seen them previously. I could not care less that our nights are so predictable because it’s the simple things that bring us together, no matter how badly our families judge us for watching “The Prisoner of Azkaban” for the thousandth time.

That brings me to another point. I love the family aspect of our friendship. I feel so at home when I’m with you, your sisters, and your parents, and I could only hope that you feel the same with mine. There're so many aspects of our friendship that make it so special, and I can’t tell you how grateful I am for these past eight years.

I don’t like to get super mushy very often, but if the saying is true that if you’re friends with someone for seven years, you’re more likely to be friends for life, you have no way of getting rid of me now. Also, as I like to say, if someone can love you through the awkward middle school years, you can make it through everything. Here’s to the friendship that will last a lifetime.

I send you all my loves,

Kaylin (AKA Mary)