I, with an admittedly biased opinion, think that my parents did a fairly good job at raising me. I'm not a felon, I'm making it through college, I have a career plan: all aspects of a solid job in the parenting department. Good job, Sam and Libby. How did they accomplish having such an upstanding, accomplished, amazing, smart daughter? Well, I'm basically just complimenting myself at this point. Plus, to their credit, Jak and Anna didn't turn out half bad either. Seriously though, all self-aggrandizing and joking aside, they are great parents. They've been supportive, loving, and most surprisingly: hands-off as I've gotten older.

I've seen a lot of kids grow up through high school and college and still have parents hover over them the same way that they did when the kid was 12. My parents didn't do that. They've always operated under a system of "I'll give you the freedom until you give me a reason to take it away." Basically, as they say in the legal world: "Innocent Until Proven Guilty." Now, we never had a beyond a reasonable doubt standard in the Kieffer Household like criminals do in court, but the principle holds that as I got older: I was free to do as I wanted until I gave them a reason to believe I shouldn't have that freedom. This didn't mean I was driving around Morton at 10 or anything wild like that, but I gained freedom and responsibility that came with that freedom with age. As a kid and later a teenager that was a very valuable thing to have, and consequently, neither I nor any of my siblings ever did anything to justify taking that freedom away.

As I've gotten older and seen people grow up in helicopter parent households versus what I've grown up with, I have an even higher appreciation for what freedom meant for me growing up and even today as I come back and forth between college and home. Now that I'm in college, I come and go as I please. I drive to work, run errands, go shopping, hang out with friends; basically, all the stuff that a normal 20-something would be doing if they lived either on their own or with roommates. Thanks to the generosity of my parents, I get to do all that without having to worry about grocery bills, utility bills, or rent. They occasionally ask where I'm going or how late I'll be out, but they've never told me no and, honestly, it's all information that I would voluntarily tell a roommate if I was living with one anyway.

So thanks, mom and dad, for giving me the freedom to grow up into a functioning young adult without the burden of having to financially support myself when I'm not quite ready to yet. I know it can't always be easy living with someone who treats your house like a hotel most days and trying to fix your dinner schedule around when I might possibly be home to eat it with you. Thank you for your patience as I try to find my own way in the world, and giving me this financial safety net that I can lean on. But most of all, thank you for always being loving, always being supportive, and always trusting me. You've earned every parenting sticker I've ever sarcastically given to you, plus an infinite amount more.