For Kimi-

You're 20. You're 20.... Wow, that is so weird to think, let alone type.

Today marks the day in which you have officially reached what I have always known was going to happen, the day in which the inevitable becomes reality- you're a real woman now. We always talked about what we'd be doing at  20 when we were growing up... Thinking we'd be living in New York as magazine editors (we watched The Devil Wears Prada far too much....) or remember when we we set on being  bartenders like the ones in Coyote Ugly? (We both knew we would never make it due to the fact that neither of us drink/can't dance to save our lives...) Man.... Those were the days. 20 seemed so far away back then, but it's here now and I couldn't be more elated for you. Instead of being a magazine editor or a bartender (thankfully) you're an artsy, independent, wise, beautiful English major at Boise State who is going to do great things. I am so proud of the woman that you have grown into.

I am still stuck in our lovely past- growing up on grandpa's ranch, walking around Ojai, pretending we were Elizabeth Swan after watching Pirates of the Caribbean.  Life has brought us down separate paths, but we have never let go of one another's hands. We don't talk as often as we should, but there is something about being connected to someone- the type of connected in which you know that you were best friends long before this earth began- that makes the distance more bearable.

I'm always going to remember you as the 14 year old girl who sat by my side on the edge of the highway the summer before we began high school. We talked about how scared we were to go to high school. How scared we were to grow up and how scared we were to see what parts of the real world were all about. But in that moment, when we were tossing the oranges from Grandpa's ranch across the highway, with the backdrop of the sweet glow of the warm California sun fade into the Ventura skyline, we both knew that despite the challenges that growing up with bring upon us, we'd always have each other.

We're always going to have each other.

In the words of our hero Chris Martin, "you don't know how lovely you are." And it's true. You're never going to fully comprehend how much of a goddess you are. You're never going to wrap your head around the fact that the strength you hold is so powerful. You're never going to know how much I love you and am so thankful for the fact that you are my cousin/twin soul/confidant.

Happy birthday, Kimi. I love you to the moon and back.

ditto.