It all started so innocently. We met as strangers, thrown together by fate. Some of you grew up with me, others I have only known a short while. Some of you I have hugged constantly over the years, and others I met at a time when hugging was 'un-cool', and it has stayed that way, though the times have changed around us. Some of you I have not yet met in person. Every one of you has enriched my life. You have helped to teach me, to guide me on this often turning and forking road of life. You have been with me through the good times and the bad. You have comforted me when I cried, held me when I was afraid, and laughed with me when I was happy.
And now we are in college. And though the distance between us is not great, it is great enough. I am no longer afraid to reach out and hug you, in fact I long to do it.
You had walked with me for so long that I was afraid to venture on alone. Yet even as I feared the dark of night, along came others to help me on my journey, in hopes that I would walk with them so they need not journey on alone. They picked up where you left off, and now they are no longer strangers.
Who are you? You might be my brother, my sister, my cousin, an old acquaintance or a new one. But first and foremost, I call you friend. And I miss you if you are away, and if you are here, then I thank you for standing by my side.
And so I send you this, so that you might know that someone, somewhere, is thinking of you, praying for you, and loving you. And that person is me. May God grant you peace and happiness in your times of trial, and watch over you, so that one day we will meet again.
