Stephanie Louise.

How many times have i tried to explain my thoughts about you via paper, phone or computer?
countless, i swear.
But it's only because every time i get thinking about how much i appreciate you, i feel like i have to let you know, just in case i haven't before.
Even though i have tried to, many many times, and i just repeat myself so you're probably quite sick of it by now.
but ANYWAY.

More than half of my life has been spent with you by my side. throughout that time we've been through more than anyone could ever imagine. from the highs to the lows, we've experienced so much together, and i wouldn't change a single second we have shared.
You were the reason i loved school as a kid.
You were the cause for my excitement over weekends.
You made everything so much brighter, i honestly cannot comprehend my life without you.

What we have has to be more than just a label of 'best friends'.
I genuinely believe we are conjoined twins who were separated at birth.

You're the identical opposite of me. (that makes no sense, but it's true)
And, although i hate having everything in common with you, i love it at the same time.
What's worse is that i know you hate it too.
Which makes us even more alike. GAH.

We are not ordinary best friends, i know this for a fact. We're not better than any other best friends, but we are different from that.
Just the fact that we had so many people come along and try to separate us from being friends is hard enough. But we always, always, always stuck together. And it wasn't even hard.
So much for Mrs. Lambourne's "You will both go your separate ways and no longer be friends once in highschool" lecture.

I had this theory as a little kid that everyone had an exact double, who was also the opposite of them, living somewhere else in the world. I think that theory proves to be true, or at least for me when it comes to you.

No matter what, i'm not letting you go. EVER.
It's just not gunna happen.

*That day in 2004 at the Homestead with the big hills in Autumn, we made a friendship pact behind the giant shady tree, that we'd always be best friends.

- 6 years later, nothing has changed, and i know in my heart that it never will.

Even though our circumstances may be different, i still cherish your friendship as much as ever, if not more.

I have so many memories with you.
*We made up our own language in grade two. We didn't understand each other, but yet we did at the same time.
*We used to pretend to be lions and panthers sleeping high in the tree behind the pump shed and the water tower. I used to tell you i was a black panther and my eyes were glow-in-the-dark.
*We made a house out of those wheely brown furry walls at the old church building one day and sat inside it drinking cans of creaming soda, thinking we were awesome.
*We made up a song that i still remember the start to, and used tennis rackets as guitars and performed it in front of the grade 6's in a competition. Taylah danced, only cus we secretly didn't want her to sing :S
*We collected "bobbly-head animals and created a town that spread out from your bedroom to the kitchen.
*We were afraid of your china doll, your furbie toy and that plastic rose twirled around your lamp.
*you slept-talked to me about a fish at Forest Edge.
*you slept-walked into your room when i was sleeping there and shoved plastic food into my hands, because you had a dream you were Adro off of the Biggest Loser and you had to go shopping for healthy food.
*You were the only one who stood up for me in 2003 when the whole school turned against me for no apparent reason
*You were beside me when Mr.Hardy called us bullies and catish girls.
*We were the 'mysterious masked twin sisters' with identical masks for the Masquerade ball in grade 2.
*We took photos with James with different proportions, so it looked like we were tiny people riding on a skateboard.
*We kept hopping on the stones in the river in Adelaide, and always looked up just in time to realise that we were a centimetre away from hitting our heads on the bridge.
*We wasted all our film on the cameras at the airport getting to Adelaide on the first day.
*We both had ridiculous crushes in grade 2, i'm not repeating their names.
*You lent me your pink LG phone a few years ago, which i still have somewhere in my house. But if we were to charge it, it would have all the photos of us from Adelaide.
*We recorded 1 second videos of us making some weird noise and then replayed it a thousand times and laughed our heads off.

These were the simplest parts of things we've done together. there are way too many to name even a fraction of what we've done.

Basically, I really REEEALLLLYYY hold you dear in my heart, and i just want you to remember that i'm ALWAYS here for you. I would never intentionally do anything to hurt you, you are one of the favourite parts of my life.

Thankyou for everything you have ever done, and Happy Birthday.
I Wouldn't Be Me Without You.
I love you.