To My Parents

Dear Mom and Dad,

Thank you for raising me the way you did. Before I even entered the world, I know that you always wanted the very best for me whether I was your firstborn son or daughter. You always made sure I had an abundance of love to help me flourish like a plant receiving the perfect amount of sunlight. You delivered discipline where it was due and I learned from that, and eventually grew to appreciate it. Even when life was straining on you in every way, you reassured us kids that everything would be just fine. Life would go on and we would survive.

You pushed me through school, encouraging me to persevere despite my childish complaints even through all of my senior year, until I eventually graduated and went on to college. I learned the meaning of hard work by watching you as a child and acting on that later, myself. You taught me that hard work is not simply applied to homework or writing papers for English class, but it is especially carried out in the relationships we pursue with others throughout the course of our lives.

You raised me to understand that parents are not meant to be my best friends, but that we can always have fun together. While you are the authority, you are also the ones I can share my goofiest self with and who I have the most inside jokes with to bring up at any given moment (Magic Mountain/ Lion's Den/ Chevy's). I have laughed to the point of crying with you more than anyone else on this earth.

You made sure that us kids understood from a young age that we are always each other's most loyal friends. We grew up together, imagined and played together, fought, and built each other up. Even though we fought each other, no one was allowed to ever pick on my little brothers without unleashing a very angry older sister.

Today, I'm still learning, and I know I always will be, but I am specifically learning how to be an adult. How to be independent yet always dependent on God. I know I will stumble. I already have, and gotten some pretty nasty scars in the process. Still, these mistakes have been and will be my choices. My choices shape me, and even though sometimes they look like cliffs for me to topple over, please understand that that may not always be the case. I hope you know that, despite my short comings, I love you.

So once again, thank you for all of the love and all of the life lessons you have shown and taught me. You mean more to me than this entire letter could ever say, and that is the honest truth. I cannot wait until I come home again and can get another warm hug.

Love you much,

Your Little Girl

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