Some people see their grandparents on the holidays or for a family dinner once or twice a month; I could not imagine being one of these people. My grandma has been one of the biggest influences of my life and continues to be with each day. She’s the person I call when things go right and when things go wrong.

They say you can’t choose your family, but if I could, I would choose her a thousand times over. I can trace back the most important parts of me and my best qualities into the things being her granddaughter has taught me, and this is my thank you to her.

She has taught me what being a strong independent woman means. Under her guidance, my family functions well as a matriarchy; we are strong, we are close, and we are good people. She raised a very strong, intelligent woman who grew up and became my mother, and with them as my role models, I have thrived.

They have taught me how to look at the world in a way that reflects what I want to see in it until that is manifested. My grandma wants to see a world where her family is happy and thriving, so that is the world she built for us. My mother wants to see a world where animals are loved and safe, so she creates that world for them. I want to see a world where people treat each other and their surroundings with kindness and respect, so that is the world I have started to make through my own work and my education.

Through my grandma’s leadership, adversity is not something that is feared, but something that you learn from. When we’ve fallen into hard financial times, death has touched our family, or we’ve felt like morning will never come, we’ve pushed through to watch the sunrise. This has been the single greatest skill my grandma could have ever taught my mother and I.

What better lesson could there be to learn than an attitude that can get you past literally every trying event you must face? She faced struggles in life from being a single mother in her early adulthood, helping raise her grandchildren, and becoming a caretaker for her own father when age set in. Some things can only be taught to us through experiences, and the lessons she learned have passed through my mother in her own struggles with single motherhood, financial struggles, and the unexpected curves that life takes.

All of these lessons were passed on to me. Through their strength, I have held the same job for nearly four years, I will graduate with my Bachelors of Social Work this May, and I have made a home for myself and both of my dogs.

So this is my thank you to my grandma: for her strength, for her guidance, and for her love. I am so proud to be your granddaughter.

Thank you, Grandma.