BEWARE: you are about to read a sappy, lovey, cheesy, and honest ode to all the women who have helped me keep my shit together for the past 21 years of my life.

These are the women who have stood beside me, pushed me to my limits, and let me ugly cry on their shoulders a few too many times. My best friends, my sorority sisters, my family members, and my mentors-- all of the beautiful ladies who have helped me through life to this point, and I would be lying if I said that I could have done it without them. They are my team, my #squad, my sysses, my hot mess express, my fam, my biggest blessings, and my whole heart. And what I’ve realized as I’ve gotten to grow with all of these amazing people is that few things in this life are stronger than the bond, support, and friendships of women who love one another. Here are a few standout moments and characteristics that helped me realize how special these women truly are. And if you are lucky enough to have people like this in your life 1) this article will probably give you all the feels and 2) don’t ever let them go.

They are the people that you depend on, no matter what.

Maybe you need a friend on standby to pick you up in case your first date goes badly, you have found yourself stranded at school with a car that needs to be towed and no alternate way home besides walking in the cold, you decided to switch your major again..and an identity crisis ensued, or you wound up volunteering to blow up hundreds of balloons for an event and quickly realized that was too much of a burden for one person. Regardless of the situation, these women are the first people you call when you need backup, and they don’t ever question the reasoning. They’re just there for you, and thank God for that.

They are honest with you.

They know what looks good on you and what doesn’t. They know if you will regret texting your ex back or not. They know that sometimes you can be a little bit crazy, or controlling, or overly sensitive, and they embrace it. They know when you need to drink some coffee (or wine) and get your crap together and they are not afraid to tell you any of these things. It never comes out of a negative place (even though it may feel that way at times) they really just know you well enough and love you too much to not tell you the truth when you need to hear it, and often when it’s all said and done, you appreciate them for this.

They help you love yourself.

It’s truly special when you have friends/family/etc. that are able to be honest with you (as seen above) while simultaneously helping you love yourself and become the best you. They often see your strengths before you do, and they always bring them out. They make you feel like you can take on the world (or at least take on the next day) and they always have the perfect words to help build you up when your confidence is at ground level. They make you feel lovable again when you’re suffering from a broken heart. Whether that means telling you that you’re pretty while feeding you ice cream, helping you pick out your next “going out” ensemble that makes you look like a rock star, or reminding you that “you’re more beautiful than Cinderella, you smell like pine needles, and you have a face like sunshine” (Bridesmaids) and they are ultimately successful in helping you remember that you are awesome.

They inspire you.

This is probably my favorite thing about all of the amazing women in my life. They constantly inspire me to do better, to do more, and just to be amazed at all of the things that they are able to do. I know that I could afford to be more carefree and brave like my best friend, I would benefit from being more selfless like my mom, and I could grow immensely from being more confident and confrontational like my roommate. I love watching these beautiful people achieve their dreams, receive opportunities, and change the world and I’m thankful that I get to be by their sides through all of it. I am their biggest fan through the good, the bad, and the ugly, and I know they are the same for me. What more could you ask for in the people that you surround yourself with?

They make you laugh more than anyone else.

If you have a group of women like this, you have undoubtedly gotten into shenanigans together, made some memories together, and laughed until you cried together more times than you can count. You are able to look back and crack up all over again when you think about the time that you did somersaults down the hallway after drinking wine, the summer night that you decided to go streaking across the high school football field, the day at dance camp when you convinced each other to put underwear on your heads to take a picture, and the late night after pre-initiation where you tried to fit eight girls into a tiny car together. Your fondest memories were made with these women and even after they are years in the past, they still make you laugh harder than anything else.

You know that nothing could change this bond.

Sometimes life blesses you with these beautiful people, and then takes them away by means of graduating high school, finishing college, moving away, growing up, and infinite other reasons. While these circumstances may challenge your relationships with these women, you know that they will never change. They will simply adjust from 3 hour coffee dates to 3 hour facetime dates, you’ll go from spending every waking minute together to planning epic adventures to meet up and see each other a few times a year, and you’ll find a new joy in sending each other care packages of pointless gifts in the time that you’re apart. But through all this, you still know that these women are the ones that you want by your side during the biggest moments of your life, the ones you call when you had a bad day at work or a boy was a mean to you, and the ones that you text endless streams of thoughts too when you’re catching up on this week's episode of “The Bachelorette.”

They fill your heart.

The final and possibly the most important thing about these women, is that they fill your heart. They fill it with happiness, laughter, comfort, sarcasm, intelligence, inspiration and all of the other things that you need in life. They teach you a lot, help you immensely, and are completely irreplaceable. They believe in you, when you don’t believe in yourself. Love you, even when you might not deserve it. And make you laugh, when you’re struggling really hard to not full-on ugly cry.

Thank goodness for these women and they sanity they bring me, I know that I would be very lost without them.