It’s one thing to meet someone and feel like you connect on so many levels. However, it’s another thing when those connections last more than a few months and go deeper than just something to pass the time away with. What I am talking about here is authentic friendship. The realest, the purest, and the greatest form of friendship. My best example of that kind of friendship is my best friend since junior year of high school, Kaylin.

I remember the first moment we connected. It was New Year’s Eve of 2013. We were preparing to ring in the new year with each other for the first time. We barely knew each other yet, but our friend groups had combined. We were one big happy family, but the thing missing was that I did not know my best friend yet. We all were having a great time, and she asked me to take a selfie with her for snapchat. It is funny how one thing leads to the next, because that selfie led to years of laughter, love, and true friendship.

So this girl, Kaylin, I realized she was amazing. We built a friendship that was so strong. We grew in different ways than most friends find themselves doing. We have taken turns throughout the years bringing each other back from places we do not want to be. We have both encountered dark times but have managed to be there for each other and be someone that we can rely on and go to for advice.

We talk about everything and anything. From school to work; boys to people that annoy us; and one of our most unique connections is faith. Times when we have doubted our faith we were able to talk and bring each other hope that would help us strengthen our faith. It is not every day that you can find someone who you can be absolutely crazy with and also so mature that you are convinced you are 50-year-old women who have their lives together.

I hope that everyone has a Kaylin in their life. They motivate you to be the best version of you and they also give you someone to love unconditionally and be loved by unconditionally. Authentic friendship is not something that comes around often, or even sticks around after it has been achieved. I am so lucky to have a friendship that has lasted and has been so important. I love my best friend, and I love how much of a real friend she is.