My Life, My Sweetness: To My Most Loyal Reader:

Happy Birthday.

This post is dedicated entirely to the memories we've shared. I tried to limit the original obnoxious amount of photos and deleted a bunch including most that are already on the blog. See more of Ryan's and my adventures over the past year here:

One Fine Sunday, Headed Down South, Snow Day, Senior Retreat, Wintertime, Crowds and Doughnuts, FDB, Marriage Weekend, Luaupalooza, Senior Week 1, 2, 3, 4, Bacc Mass, An Interruption, Wedding 2, 3, 4

Ryan, I am so lucky to have you as a friend and it is killing me this year to not be celebrating our October birthdays together. If only Kansas weren't half our country away...

I cannot define my college experience without you. You are the person who constantly calls me to more. The person who would spend hours talking about the same things over and over again on full stomachs and camping chairs. The man who would drop anything, lose sleep any day if that meant spending quality time on Wednesday nights with best friends. The person who is always down for a wawa run and controls the music the whole way there. One of two people who taught me that it is not pretentious to hold people and materials to a higher quality. You are someone who can eat half a pint of Coffee Heath Bar Crunch before Shan and I even get a second spoonful. Quite honestly you're the person that taught me that drinking can be done responsibly and that the best conversations and the most opportune time to Evangelize tends to happen with a beer in hand. I'm laughing now just thinking that you bought beer based on the patriotism of the boxes and every food must pass the sniff test before it is qualified as Ryan eating caliber. My summer with you taught me how to cook, how to grocery shop, how to host, and how to be domestic. (Tim thanks you.) You challenge me every day to live out my own Magnificat. You push me always toward the stretch zone. You never let me settle. You don't put up with my crap. You reassured me that my leadership style is not, in fact, tyrannical despite my insecurities. You showed me by example what having an active prayer life looks like. God blessed my life by putting you in it and I love you.

#letsbesaints

The rest of this post is entirely for your joy.