We sat together on my front porch the day before I packed my life into the back of my family car and drove away, and we knew everything was about to change. We stared at our feet and talked about anything but the fact that come early morning, I would be driving far away and she would be staying behind to keep going to the school where we had gone together, but this time she would be alone. She looked at me, and even though neither of us were particularly emotional people, there were tears in her eyes. She let them fall because if anyone was allowed to see her cry, it was me. I hugged her and we sat for a long time, just us, on my front porch, refusing to believe everything was about to change.

And it did.

The biggest lie of all is that once you leave for college, your friendships won't change. They do. But how you let them change is what defines your friendship and how real it is.

I can honestly say that I count myself blessed every day that my best friend is two years younger than me. The time between us gave both of us a new perspective on life, my experience giving her solace in things that she hadn't done yet, and her younger take on the things I was determined I knew everything about changing my stubborn mind. Those two years gave us a beautiful gift and made our friendship the kind I was sure would last while I was away.

So, to my beautiful best friend, thank you.

Thank you for being the person that I think of on the days that I don't feel like getting up and going to class, because I know I need to set a good example for you. Thank you for being someone I can call from back home that isn't my parents when I need to talk about home. Thank you for believing in me from so far away even when you can't see me every day like before I left. Thank you for refusing to let me back out of going away and going to community college because you knew I could do more. Thank you for sending me pictures of your dog, because I miss seeing dogs all the time and all of my other friends in college don't see them either. Thank you for being there when I need to call home in the middle of the night because I can't sleep or need an opinion on an outfit for the next day. Thank you for having parents who send me off to school with snacks and decorations that remind me I have a whole second family to visit when I'm home. Thank you for sending me texts that you miss me when I'm too worried to send them to you. Thank you for planning road trips to visit even though its hours in the car.

But more than that, remember that I am never far away. I want to hear about your trouble in the classes that I took two years ago. I want to hear about your high school sports, how your homecoming was, who you're friends with, and your job. I want to know when you're upset and when you're happy. I want to know all about your life because even though I'm off at school I'm creating a new life with a new people, I want you to be a part of it. I want you to visit and meet everyone new and exciting that I did. And most of all, I want you to grow with me and become better versions of ourselves together. Because even though there are 200 miles between us, you will always be the one that I want to sit with on my porch watching the sun go down because we don't want our time together to end.

I want us to still cry during every reunion because we missed each other that much even if it's years from now.

I want you to be my best friend no matter where we live, or what path of this life we are walking.

Thank you for being you, and for being my best friend even though I am so very far from you.