This is for the friends I will grow old with. The people who have been there from the beginning, and the people who have proven that they will be there until the end.

Thank you for always being there when I needed you. For being selfless and listening to everything I had to get off of my chest, for picking me up when I felt like I couldn’t possibly do so myself.

Thank you for always being truthful with me. For being the type of person who had the ability to tell me I was wrong, who respected me enough to challenge me to be better, do better, and think better. Thank you for always being understanding, for always allowing for me to express myself and to feel what I was feeling, but thank you for loving me enough to tell me when I was overreacting — thank you for loving me enough to demand I get out of my own head.

Thank you for pushing me out of my comfort zone and helping me to grow. You are the reason why I have experienced what I have experienced — from the random events I was always too shy to go to, to the parties I was always going to pass up because my bed seemed like the better choice. Things were never as scary with you by my side, and you knew that. You knew that and you made it a point to be there for me, to drag me out of my excuses, to show me what I was missing.

Thank you for bringing joy to my life. For making me laugh so hard I’ve had coffee come out of my nostrils, for all of our inside jokes and all of those monumental mistakes we look back on and smile about. And thank you for the other kind of joy you have brought to my life — the kind of joy that comes from knowing you are understood; from knowing that there is someone else in the world who gets you on a level most people don’t. Thank you for being that person. Thank you for taking the time to let me know that I’m not alone in the way I feel, or think, or love.

Thank you for simply being you. You inspire me to be a better person, you motivate me to do more and see more and feel more, because you’re always right there encouraging me to do so. They say the best kind of friend is the one who is always cheering you on, the one who is always showing you your potential, and that is exactly what you do. You are such a positive force in my life, and I feel as if there aren’t enough words in the English language to explain just how much you mean to me.

Thank you for choosing me. You aren’t just a friend to me, you’re a soul friend — the type of person who changes someone’s life, who makes everything that much better.