To my college professors,

To put it simply, thank you. You have helped me in more ways than I can express - I wish I could accurately express my gratitude to you.

There were many late nights where I worked on your "pointless" assignments, wondering why I was writing that paper, or why I was doing this textbook reading that didn't seem to have any purpose. Many early mornings where I had to wake up early to finish an assignment - still wondering if my getting up was going to be worth it.

There were times in class where it felt like I could get up and leave and not miss a beat. Or that staying in bed all day felt like the better option instead of sitting in the cold classroom, yawning every two minutes, desperately trying to keep my eyes open through the exercises we were doing.

After all these moments, when it was time for to walk across the stage, I looked at you all looking up at us, walking across the stage and posing with our diplomas and knew why we did all those "pointless assignments."

You pushed me to do my best in every aspect of the word. You pushed me to study harder, to read more, and to do my best. Coming in, I thought I knew how to study, and that I could do this. But you showed me just how wrong I was.

Sometimes you kicked my butt, and there were definitely a few times that I cried over grades on assignments, and didn't know how I was going to muster up the courage to go back to class and come back from that crappy paper. There were definitely days where I wanted to curl up in bed and never go to class again. Most likely because of stress.

But I know you did all of this for the right reasons. You pushed me to become a better person, and to learn everything I could before I had to go out into the "real" world. (Still pretty nervous for that moment to happen).

Thank you for pushing me. Thank you for letting me come to your office and talking to me: not only about class, but jobs and life. You believed in me even when I couldn't really believe in myself. Thank you for inspiring me to "Be the Change".

As much as I won't miss the nights staying up working on projects and finishing class readings, I will miss seeing you in the hallways, and welcoming me into your office when I needed to.

I look forward to coming back as an alumna and talking to you - hopefully learning more from you.