For a start, I miss you. I miss our casual movie and popcorn nights, our obnoxiously long conversations in the hot tub and going to the dollar movie theater almost every week. I miss being your teammate on the court and best friend off. Now, I’ve seen a couple of you on the other side of the net. Even though I miss seeing you every single day, I’m still grateful that I can still call you my best friends.

When we graduated, we thought we would be the best friends that we were in high school- talking all/every day, telling each other everything, and having numerous get-togethers throughout the year. Little did we know, it’s not easy. It’s not easy to keep in touch with everyone we want to when we all have our own schedule, new jobs, and new friends. There are some people that I thought I would never lose touch with and now I haven’t talked to them in two years. I am so thankful for every friendship I had in high school and they will always hold a special place in my heart. Our lives were just going completely different directions which resulted in us losing touch.

You don’t realize it before you go to college, but your high school friends are always going to be the ones that are there for you no matter what. We were by each other’s sides for the first 18 years of our lives. We experienced some of the most important milestones of our lives together- first sleepover, first tee-ball game, a state appearance in two sports, first heartbreak, and the big decision on where to go to college. Your families were our families. I can honestly say I grew up with multiple families that always welcomed me with open arms. You were there for every decision I make and will continue to make. Whether you thought I was making the right decision or not, you supported me no matter what and continue to do so today.

I look forward to the random group messages every day and I rely on you to keep me up to date with the latest gossip. Somehow, you find a way to make me smile every single day even when I’m hours away from you. Yes, we still can get under each other’s skin and we still have disagreements. We might not know how to keep what is said in the group chat in the group chat, but we forgive and forget because it was never clarified that what is said in the chat stays in the chat. We know that no matter what, we will always be each other’s rocks.

We can go to each other for anything and no amount of distance can keep us from being best friends. Although we don’t talk or see each other every day, it’s like we haven’t missed a beat when I do finally make a trip home to see you or you make a quick trip to see me. In the end, I love you guys so much and thank you for being some of the best friends that anyone could ask for!