California dreamin.

Sometimes, California gives you a tan line. Or pictures with Mickey Mouse. Or a head of saltwater curled hair. Or a headache from a roller coaster.

 But if you're really lucky, it gives you a best friend. 

A best friend who goes job hunting with you for days, and then spends the longest five months of our lives slaving away at a little Mexican restaurant for $2.13 an hour. Learns how to make gallons of salsa, serve a beautiful fried ice cream, and order a to go dinner of tacos worthy of royalty. 

A best friend who has never seen snow before, and has no idea what the term white washing means...and doesn't hate you when you show her exactly what it means. 

A best friend who drives around with you for hours when you're bored and Skypes you at 3 am when you're going to school 4 hours away from each other and understands your love for Dr. Pepper better than anybody else in the world. 

A best friend who dyes her hair almost as much as you do, and doesn't judge you when you get completely and totally lost on the way to crash a prom, stop at a green light, run a red light and successfully park worse than anybody else in the history of the world. 

A best friend who goes along with all your crazy ideas, delivers cupcakes to someone she's never met and you haven't talked to in a year, and has random sleepovers with you when you're home for the weekend. 

And then that best friend puts in her mission papers. And gets called to Paris. And leaves on April 3rd. And as you watch her give her farewell talk, you realize how grateful you are that her dad got a new job in Salt Lake, and that you went to lunch with that random new girl the first day of senior year. 

So Em, here's to you. For being one of the best friends I've ever had, and for changing my life more in one year than anybody I've ever met. 

Change some lives in Paris, and don't forget that you're not allowed to stay any longer than 18 months because I need a midnight McDonald's run buddy and someone to laugh at my jokes. 

Good luck, Soeur Elliott. :)