My life-long best friend and I have shared a lot over the course of our friendship, including our first name. We've seen times of inseparable closeness and times we went months with no contact. All the while, we picked up exactly where we left off, no matter what separated us. We have a great friendship because we have learned, with trial and error, how to support one another and confront each other when needed. We challenge each other daily to be the best versions of ourselves. Over the years, we have taught one another tons of cool life lessons by picking the other up when she falls. All in all, she is absolutely irreplaceable.

1. Love is definitely an action.

She taught me this by not only choosing to love me on my worst days, but knowing exactly what I needed to feel loved. Whether it was a snack or just sitting and listening to my meaningless rants, and she always seems to know just the right song to play or to skip. While this may be a strange thing to learn from a friend, she is possibly the closest person to me. Her love seems sisterly and it isn't conditional, though we may joke that it is.

She also shows me how to love other people when I seem to be unloving. When I have a day that I don't want to love a seemingly undeserving person, she reminds me that I also have moments where it is hard to love me, and sometimes you just have to show the love you're called to!

2. I don't have to be like anyone else.

The person I am as her best friend is the most pure, unpersuaded form of myself. When I try to act like someone else or change who I am, she will gently and lovingly remind me that I am the best me when I'm just being me. There have been moments when this was two fold: I end up having to do the same for her. But we keep each other in line when we fall off track or try to fit into the in-crowd. Acceptance of our uniqueness is what makes us best friends.

3. There is no such thing as the perfect friend.

Friends are simply human. They are going to screw up. I will. She will. There is no avoiding it. The great thing about a true, life-long best friend is that even when we screw up, or give our input in where it is unwanted, she will love me anyway, and be right there waiting after the storm blows through. We will have rough days where there's a boy in the way, or a topic we don't agree on, but we will never stop being friends.

From flawed to broken, to messy and back, we will always have each others backs, because we're that lucky. The Lord puts people in our lives for a reason, and He has shown me abundant reasons why He gave me Emily. I learn new things from her every day, and she blesses me with a sweet friendship that will last a lifetime.

So to my life-long best friend, thanks for being the person I need, and thanks for loving me all my days.