I may have been, and still am, skeptical of strangers, but I don't ever remember you being an outsider. You were the first man I loved outside of my immediate family, the first person I came to cherish and love so deeply as my own.
Your big bear hugs make me feel loved and safe and your joking and kidding makes me laugh and laugh, always has, always will. No one can knock some sense into me quite like you can, as evidenced that June night in 2013. Thank you for searching me out, for barging through the clamor of girls, for sticking up for me and for loving me like your very own, too. You've been doing all of that from the beginning, and to call you my family makes me the luckiest one.
Thank you & I love you.