Last Wednesday I turned 20. Every year on my birthday, I reflect on my year and think about the things I enjoyed and how things have changed. As I looked around me this year, I was sitting on my best friend's couch eight-hundred and thirteen miles from home as she was cooking breakfast and I thought, "wow I never thought I'd be this far away from home and be successful on my own."

But, here I am. I have two very important role models to thank for that, my brother and sister.

Both of my siblings went far away from home for college too. My mom was constantly relaying awesome information like, "your sister scored double digits in her basketball game!" or "your brother was just voted President of his fraternity!" and I thought I would never live up to them.

It wasn't until I actually visited them at school that I saw how much work both of them put into their passions. How focused and determined they were to meet their goals and get where they want to be. Yes, they would celebrate their smaller victories that they told mom about, but those were just steps in a larger process.

Neither of my siblings has ever given up on ANYTHING, but both of them have had justified reasons to want to. They have both overcome serious obstacles, obstacles of a magnitude I don't think I'll ever understand. But no matter how defeated they felt, they remained fixed on the bigger picture. They knew taking a few blows was a part of the process too.

Meg, watching you work your butt off to play college basketball and then becoming the star point-guard made me so proud. You later went on to prove there were no limits whatsoever after you moved your life across the globe and played professionally. To top it off, you came home and switched gears completely and set off on a mission to become an elementary school teacher. Now, your 3rd graders admire you every single day.

Matt, watching you have to give up football tore me up almost as much as it did you. Your strength, speed, and determination were unmatched on that field no matter who you played against.

But you held your head high and you remained proud of your accomplishments as you said goodbye. You went off to college and shaped the life you wanted. You did everything you wanted to and put yourself first, a lesson I am still trying to learn.

When things got rocky as you were trying to figure out what you wanted to do for the rest of your life, you never accepted defeat. You kept trying and taking every angle that would get you where you wanted to go. You did not stop until you were happy.

Thank you both for being the most incredible role models. I have looked up to you since the day I was born. You've never let me down and I don't think you ever could.