Open letter to my best friend

Sometimes words aren't enough to fully bring to life our feelings towards a loved one. And even though words at times can not fully express our appreciation or gratitude, I know the terms in which I am about to write will be just enough to continuously let my best friend, Ashley, know how much she is loved.

According to Wikipedia, Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people.[1] It is a more potent form of interpersonal bond than an association and studied in academic fields such as communication, sociology, social psychology, anthropology, and philosophy. Various educational theories of friendship have been proposed, including social exchange theory, equity theory, relational dialectics, and attachment styles.

Although there are many forms of friendship, some of which may vary from place to place, specific characteristics are present in many such bonds. Such elements include affection, kindness, love, virtue, sympathy, empathy, honesty, altruism, loyalty, generosity, forgiveness, mutual understanding and compassion, enjoyment of each other's company, trust, and the ability to be oneself, express one's feelings to others, and make mistakes without fear of judgment from the friend. Friendship is an essential aspect of relationship-building skills.

At the core of love is vulnerability; so, too, friendship. To be vulnerable is to be human, and to be human is to be vulnerable.

So without further ado.

Dear Ashley,

I'm going to start this off by predicting that I'll have you crying by the second paragraph of this letter.

(Either you'll cry, or I'll cry.)

Not sure yet.

By now, you've already dropped me off at my mother's house. And probably off to pack for Jasper (which, by the way, I hope is treating you well). However, before you left, I forgot to say that seeing your face during that day was the highlight of my May. I want you to know that you had always helped me see the light when I lost sight and have ALWAYS found a way to help me ground back into reality. You may not know it to the extremes, but your words of affirmations, your love and desire to see me win, have always been one of many driving factors as to why I feel immense loyalty and kinship towards you. I firmly believe that people walk in our lives for reasons beyond our human understanding. And although we live in this 3-dimensional world ( 5-D for us), I am sure that we agreed before coming into this life to find and be here for one another.

I think you came into my life to teach me grace and forgiveness towards the worst of situations. You loved me when I was tough to love, pasted my pieces back together when I looked too sickly to fix and heard me when I didn't have the strength even to whisper.

You mourn my failures and celebrate my successes with me. You console me when I feel like I am ready to throw in the towel. And, I honestly think that you know more about my day-to-day life than anybody else, to be honest, and that's saying a lot considering we dont talk every day.

But even so, I know that no matter what it is, you're going to listen, and you're going to smile, empathize, and have a practical solution ready for us to explore, and I love you for that!

Every day since the moment I met you in Mr. Janzen's 4th-period drama class has been a vibe.

From day one, when we met in Drama, I always admired how you carry yourself. You are a brilliant and graceful woman with a killer sense of fashion.

That's why you always got the leading role. Talented, intelligent and fashionable. You were and still are a fashion icon: point-blank, period.

You always got straight As, excelled in all your sciences, on top with honours of distinctions.

If that's not beauty and brains, then I don't know what is because the way your body, mind, and spirit align always seems to blow my mind.

Speaking of Drama, I'm so grateful to say this, but THANK GOD; you are NOT A GOSSIP OR DRAMA QUEEN!!! (I'm sorry, you know how I feel about that behaviour) and I have to give you credit where absolute credit is due publicly. God, as my witness, not one day had gone by where you had ever spoken words of hate to me about other people behind their back or wished ill upon others even when they did you wrong, or you felt insecure.

That's absolute integrity, my girl, But I know when you need to lay a bitch straight, you give them nightmares.

But when I have nightmares, you sing me lullabies, and that's why we are friends, LOL.

Reminiscing over the memories we have made, I'm so grateful to look back and say they have all been pleasant and dreamy. Thank you for creating some wholesome memories with me. I think looking back, my absolute fave was The Beyonce concert in 2016.

I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've gotten asked "who's the hot girl on your Snapchat story" after we hang out. Seriously, it's crazy. You are THAT GIRL!

But truthfully, now that we are at this point in our lives. I just wanted to say that although we have our experiences, education and are starting to make a life for ourselves.

No one has it figured out.

No one ever has everything figured out, Ashley.

Some are just better at hiding it than others.

We shouldn't continue stressing about our future; I don't want you worrying about your future, and I dont want to keep stressing about my future because we will always have a bright future. From the second we met in high school, I knew you were going to achieve great things. And it's just a matter of time.

We've gone from seeing one another frequently to slowly seeing each other less and less as time went on over the years; we had had a long-distance type of friendship for a while. Still, we always manage to catch up, and vibe like things never changed.

A perfect example of that is when I got the chance to come home. Without hesitation, we immediately made plans to see each other and caught up where we left, which makes me happier than you would probably imagine.

I could keep going off, but in short, Ash, You have taught me to believe in myself and to chase my dreams. If I didn't have the encouragement you've given me, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing (or attempting it for a better lack of words). The amount of motivation and reassurance that I've been supplied with by you and all the others has forced me to go after opportunities that I would usually be timid to do.

I've broken out of my shell. I'm becoming the woman I'm supposed to be, and I'm pretty content with that.

You have positivley influenced me a great deal, and you continue to do so – you will forever hold a special place in my life and heart.

Thank you for always being honest and there for me when I need a shoulder to cry on. Thank you for living life to the fullest with me when we get the chance to come together; I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else. Our friendship has been full of compassion, empathy, support, laughter, loyalty, trust, truth, smiles, wisdom and glamour. Here's to 8 years of pure sisterhood and to the infinite amount of years to come.

Love, Musulyn