This year for Valentine’s Day, I want to take a few hundred words to write about the platonic love that is my group of friends. While Valentine’s Day is traditionally a holiday about romantic relationships, I think it is also important to acknowledge the platonic ones — the ones that shape us, and love us just as deeply.
If I am being honest, throughout high school, I never had a solid group of girlfriends. I often envied the groups of girls who had sleepovers that lasted from Friday to Sunday, who had a group chat that was constantly buzzing, and who had a group of friends they could tell anything to. I always hoped that a platonic love like that would find me. At the beginning of my sophomore year, it finally did.
So, here is my super sappy (but hopefully impactful and somewhat relatable) letter to the girls that I am lucky enough to call my best friends.
Dear Galentines,
I am not sure I could ever put into words just how much the three of you mean to me, but I am hoping that this letter can come somewhat close. The three of you have given me the friendship I have longed for all these years, and I am eternally thankful for you.
You three are the reason that college really feels like my home away from home. Every night that we eat dinner together, we have our ritual weekend sleepovers, or go on a last minute dunkin run, I am reminded that home doesn’t just have to be a place; it can be a group of people, too.
Thank you for letting me be the most genuine version of myself at all times. Thank you for making me laugh so hard I cry in the dining hall. Thank you for letting me vent and then giving me the best advice. Thank you for being my best friends — the friends of a lifetime.
You guys are the first people I want to celebrate with when something amazing happens, and the only people I want to see when things seem to be going the opposite way. I used to think that the type of friendship I have with you —warm, heartfelt, and genuine — was something I could only see in movies and read about in sappy novels. You guys have proven me wrong, though. These friendships can happen in real life – and the three of you are proof of this.
Thank you for being my people. Thank you for always being there for me. Thank you for being my best friends.
I hope you will be my Galentines forever. 💌
– Madelyn
If you happen to be reading this and wishing you had a group like this, I get you. These friends are pretty once in a lifetime, but I am confident everyone can find a group of friends where they feel like they belong.