The first time Zach showed me who his college roommate would be, I thought “oh my gosh, he’s sooo cute.”
I had no idea at the time, or in the months to follow, how much that eighteen year old kid with swoopy dark hair would come to mean to me.
You could have walked away without even one more thought. You could have packed your stuff up, left Baker 301 and carried right along. But you didn’t. Instead you hopped on a flight to a tiny town in Texas to be with a family you had only met once before.
Seeing you and having you there during those first several days was the next best thing to having Zach there himself. I will never, ever be able to properly express to you just what your presence in Bellville during that time meant to me and did for me, but I know you played a part in saving my life. I can still feel your presence next to me in the backseat as we drove out to the funeral.
But the craziest thing is you didn’t stop there. You didn’t get on that plane back to Boston and wipe your hands and conscious clean. Instead you did the opposite. You dove into a complicated relationship with a ripped apart and bleeding fifteen year old girl that you barely knew, and twelve years later you're still talking to her, still sharing life with her.
My relationship with you is one of the most treasured relationships in my life.
Out of all the people I’m grateful for in life, you’re at the top of the list. Thank you and I love you so.