"You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love."

I met Meghan when I moved to Hood River in the middle of eighth grade. We bonded and became friends when we launched a water balloon fight against my younger brother and his friends one day after school. We began what would be a rock solid friendship despite moving and traveling across different states and countries, studying and being interested in different topics, and generally living very different lives once high school was finished. But as I reflect back upon our friendship, she has been the kind of friend who I can always count on. Who will always ask what is new and exciting with my life before she'll let me ask about hers. She has seen me through more than one heart ache, as I have with her. So when she called me and told me she was engaged almost one year ago, my heart danced with joy because Meghan had found her rock solid companion who paralleled her values, and challenged her, and loved her.

Last week I spent many hours with Meghan and her sister planning and preparing for her wedding. We drank wine, we laughed, we worked hard over little details and projects. Despite the sometimes exhausting effort that goes into getting ready for a wedding, I truly valued my time spent with her during her last days as an unmarried woman. But on her wedding day, when she finally got to kiss and hold her new husbands hand, I realized that the Meghan standing there, glowing and happier than I had ever seen her in my life, was truly Meghan. I feel blessed to have spent the last decade as her best friend, and I know that she is with who she was meant to be with all along.