A Friend in Me

"Knowing Riley was like having a twin brother. My parents moved in the same neighborhood as the Estes family when I was not even six months old, and from there I was blessed to know Riley all 20 years of his life. I say to know Riley was like having a twin brother because we did everything together when we were little. He would always be holding my hand and putting his arm around me because he thought he was protecting me by doing so. Even the past few months, he was always checking in on me to see what I was up to and how I was doing.
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One of my favorite memories of Riley and I was pretty recently. This past September, I received my acceptance letter to UNCW. When I told Riley, he was excited and wanted to go to Sonic and get a milkshake to celebrate that we were going to school together again. When I went  to pick him up I think we sat in the parking lot at Sonic for an hour just two old and lifelong friends catching up. We filled each other in on everything we felt like the other had missed. The goods and the bads and we laughed and most importantly, Riley listened. He cared so much about what was going on in my life. Riley truly was a friend in me that I will cherish forever."
-Morgan Gattis