Dear Dr. Craven,

I’m still not quite sure how you ended up as my advisor, because no matter how many times you’ve handed me the credit check sheet for the teaching concentration, which all your other advisees need, I’m most definitely still a writing concentration English major. But I really shouldn’t question it, because you have been, and continued to be, the most amazing advisor a college student could ask for. You have done so much for me in the two-going-on-three years we’ve been paired up, I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you.

Thank you for answering my hundred and one questions both in and out of class my freshman year, and for reassuring me that the “F” next to my computer course was the letter of the section I was in, NOT my actual grade. Thank you for also for just going with it when I would give you strange looks every time you asked me if I’d taken Foundations of Education yet. (Still haven’t.)

Thank you for commiserating with me sophomore year when I was taking a class with that one professor who gives really difficult, detailed quizzes (I won’t name names, but you know exactly who I’m talking about.) Thank you for being one of my references for my summer study abroad program and for continuing to help me achieve my goal of going back to Germany. Thank you for thinking of things I don’t always, such as spring- and fall-only classes. Thank you for approving a schedule change I forgot about the day before enrollment had to be finalized. Most importantly, thank you for being kind and understanding when I told you that there were days it took Herculean effort for me to just show up to class and for reminding me I am not alone.

Thank you for all the little things you do, like telling me to relax and get some rest when I walk into your office looking like death warmed over at mid-semester. Thank you for letting me use your printer that one time when I needed to print off a stats assignment that was due in ten minutes and my computer died and I didn’t have time to run to the library. Thank you for all the phone calls--to the provost’s office, testing center, library, wherever—that you’ve made during our meetings. As someone who isn’t a fan of telephoning places and asking for information, I am in awe of your gift of gab. Thank you for always being willing to be a reference for me, for always encouraging me in whatever it is I’m doing, and for reminding me that, yes, I am actually a good student!

You once said that even though you couldn’t quite figure out how we got paired up, either, you thought you’d won the lottery of advisees with me. Well, I think I won the lottery of advisORS with you.

Your (non-teaching-concentration) advisee,