This has been a crazy year for me, and I simply feel like I need to be thankful for all the wonderful humans in my life. So I’m going to write some blogs about people who I am thankful for who mean a lot to me. These people have helped shape who I am, and for that I am grateful. Since I am not going to be seeing a lot of these people over Thanksgiving, I wanted to do something else. And I chose to make this as a blog so all these people’s future employers can read about how amazing these people are. SEO people. (But seriously if you’re considering hiring them, they’re amazing.)

It is hard sometimes to tell people how much they mean to you, but that has never been something that me and Jacqueline Jones have struggled with. Since getting paired as random roommates freshman year of college at Mizzou to now, we’ve always felt that we were soul sisters and voiced our appreciation for each other.

This year, I have relied so much on this woman to help lift me up or simply join me in the trenches. We’ve laughed together, cried together, laugh cried and any other combination of hysterical laughing or crying that you can imagine. Even now that we aren’t living in the same city, I still know this girl will always answer the phone if I need her, no matter if we’ve already spoken on the phone three times that day.

On nights when I have felt so alone, this girl has always reminded me that I am not and I am so thankful for every shambly moment we have had this year. From driving through the night to get to New Orleans, to buying underwear at the dollar store to wear to a public pool party, no matter how far off track we have felt this year, we have made some amazing memories and had some great laughs. Even if we feel that we don’t have anything in our lives together this year, I will always cherish all of our memories (the ones that made the list and those that didn’t). I am glad to have a friend who pushes me to always have fun, always speak my mind and my feelings and always be myself.

“She was never crazy. She just didn’t let her heart settle in a cage. She was born wild, and sometimes we need people like her. For it’s the horrors in her heart which cause the flames in ours. And she was always willing to burn for everything she has every loved.”

—R.M. Drake

I am so thankful to have a friend like Jacqueline that lives with such intensity. She is one of the most fearless people I know, who despite some pitfalls can recognize the importance of leading a passionate life. Even on the hardest days, I am grateful to know that every emotion—fear, sadness, anger, betrayal—is just an adjective and that I have the power to change and shift which adjectives I am going to be passionate about and embody.

Today, that adjective just so happens to be thankful.