In life, there's always going to be someone or something to knock you down when you're doing well. As the early 2000's Miley Cyrus would say, "There's always gonna be another mountain." In my case, you were my mountain. Who knew a mountain would symbolize a person for me. Talk about a person of many talents.

From the first day of class, we just didn't click. After three months of calling me the wrong name, you confirmed your intolerance for my presence. To be fair, working with hormone-raged teenagers eight hours a day, five days a week, probably contributed to that a little bit. I'd like to think that I didn't give you a reason to hate me in particular either. I (almost) always did my homework, only talked when everyone in the class was talking and tried to pay attention. I wasn't any worse than any of the other students, we just didn't get along. I always felt very confident in our silent peace treaty to agree to disagree and held my tongue (which is very hard for an 18 year-old girl). Yet, on this one Monday afternoon, you did not hold your tongue. I thank you for that.

"You are wasting your time by going to college, you're just going to fail out and do nothing with your life. Don't waste your money." Those words are still burned into the back of my head like a tattoo on my skull. Growing up, your teachers are your cheerleaders, I remember my first grade teacher giving me a lollipop just for losing a tooth in her class. Eighteen years of built up confidence that just vanished right there in your class period. For once in my life, my teacher did not recognize my accomplishments. You were a cheerleader, but you were cheering for the other team. I thank you for that.

I'll admit, at the time it took all that I had not to hold up three fingers and ask you to read between the lines and then storm out, but instead I was paralyzed by your words. I'm sure you're reading this expecting me to curse you on every social media platform I'm on. Instead, however, I'd like to take the time to thank you. Thank you for not sugar coating your thoughts in order to spare my feelings. Thank you for saying it to my face and not to the other teachers on your lunch break. Thank you for teaching me something beyond math and english. Thank you for showing me that you have to earn success and giving me a reason to try harder. I truly want to thank you for appearing in my head every time I get lazy or want to quit. Thank you for being the inspiration to chase my dreams instead of wait for them to find me. Thank you for breaking me down before the world could and thank you for forcing me to get back up and work ten times harder than I thought I could.

If you didn't know my name before, you will now. I will be successful and I will work hard and I will owe it all to you. So from the bottom of my heart,

Thank you,

Ally Sackman