public function get($endpoint, $params = null)
    {
        //prepend Twitter's API version to the endpoint
        $endpoint = $this->prependVersionToEndpoint($endpoint, Config::get('api_version'));

        //contruct an options array to configure the request
        $options = $this->constructRequestOptions($params);

        //make the GET request to the endpoint with the constructed options.
        $response = $this->guzzleClient->get($endpoint, $options);

        //return response
        return $response;
    }