Danielle is one of, if not, my oldest friend.  When I say that we are “childhood” friends, I really mean it.  Danielle and I have been the best of friends since my earliest childhood memories…we even went to the same Pre-School!  As an only child, Danielle willingly became my adopted sister.  As kids we would not only try and spend all of our school recesses together, but we spent numerous nights at each others houses and she would even accompany me to family parties and joined in on all of our vacations, such as Hawaii and Mexico, to name a few.  As we continued to grow up together, we went through our awkward stages together, talked about boys, went on countless trips with both of our families, started middle and high school together, had countless Friday night get-togethers at her house and then my favorite…watching her dance.  Some of my most cherished memories of our childhood were going to Danielle’s dance recitals.  If you have ever met her, you can see that she unknowingly incorporates dance into her everyday movements and life.  She is not only graceful and beautiful, but she is one of the most loving, nurturing and caring people that I know…and it shows, as she is now a licensed SLP (Speech-Language Pathologist).  She gets to spend her day working with children who suffer from autism spectrum disorders, language learning delays and disabilities, articulation and other function disorders.  She even knows how to sign…how cool is that!  Although we decided to attend “rivaling” Universities, we stayed just as close as we ever were…even though we all know that the Huskies are better than the Cougs! :)  Now as we are older we make it a priority to visit as much as we can, even if that means dragging her boyfriend David and her two little pugs from their home in Capitol Hill all the way across the state to see us!  Of all of my memories from childhood to present, Danielle has been in all of them, so naturally I couldn’t take on this new exciting stage of my life without her.