Rare & Well Done

She was your 'BFF' in high school...the one that grabbed your yearbook on distribution day before you even had the chance to open it for the first time and reserved her three pages to sign before anyone else (she may have even taken it home for the night so that she had time to really think of what she wanted to write and make sure she didn't forget a single memory of the past year). 
She was the friend that you couldn't stand to be away from for more than the 45 minutes you were in separate classes and therefore needed to share a locker with so that you had a reason to see each other at the sound of each bell. 
She was the one you shared an Accounting book with so that you could write notes to each other and leave them in the book so the teachers never caught on, thinking you were just really into reading the book.  (suckers!)

We had met in 4th grade...we were ten.  At that time, we never imagined where our lives were about to lead us...

College.  The rulebook states that you should try and pick a school that is different from most of your fellow high school classmates and that you never, ever room with a close friend.  My school was 90 minutes from home, nearly 25 from our graduating class chose it as well, including us, the inseparables, who of course were going to be roommates.  It was what many probably considered a disaster just waiting to happen. 
We weren't listening.
Freshman year in our tiny little 10x10 postage stamp of a dorm room...a success.
Sophomore year, yet again, in the same room (after our parents denied our apartment request)...another success.
Junior year, happy as clams with tons of space in our brand-spankin' new townhouse...room for LOTS of success.
Senior year, after three years together, how could it NOT be anything but a flying success. 

We did it.  We beat all the odds, proved everyone and anyone wrong, and continued on.  That senior year of college was ten years ago.  Our 22-year long friendship is rock-hard and she is one of the most important people in my life.  She is hilarious, beautiful, intelligent, and incredibly strong.  She makes me laugh, she makes me cry, and we have been through more together than many could imagine.  She is the type of friend I wish for everyone. 

You are deeply loved, Lars...you made us beyond happy these past three days.  Thank you for making something that is so rare to so many so real and so awesome for us.