Dear Mrs. G,

There are not enough words in this world to say, thank you for all that you’ve done. High school was rough for me as it is for a lot of people. I dreaded walking through those doors every day. Freshman year was hard because dealing with the transition into the high school was not easy for me. That’s when you came into my life and changed my attitude towards school.

Every day I would come into school at 7:45 in the morning and count down the minutes until the time of day that I would get to see you. When I walked into the classroom you would always ask me how I was doing. Teachers do that all the time, but you genuinely cared how each one of your students was doing. You were always so enthusiastic and full of energy. I will never forget when you would tell the talkers in our class to "chiudi la bocca" when they were talking. Everyone in the school would always talk about how amazing you (and your homemade pizza you would occasionally bring to Italian class) were.

Resource room would always be our time to chat. You would always let me rant about all the stress my school work was causing and then sit down to work with me until I was not stressed out anymore. You would always make time to ask me how my mom and dad were doing. We loved to talk about my Nani a lot. We used to tell each other stories that our families passed onto us about living in Italy and laugh about our common crazy traditions.

I went through a lot in high school; I was dealing with personal issues and I was getting bullied. As soon as I entered your classroom, all of the bad energy went away. I was able to sit there and take a breather amongst the craziness of the high school halls. It was the one thing that kept me going every day at school. Even after 10th grade when I did not have you as a teacher anymore, you always welcomed me with open arms when I came to visit. You were like a second mother to me.

When I was home for winter break this past January, I drove by the school and you crossed my mind. I thought about how I have not gotten to see you in a long time and wanted to come visit you to catch up. You were someone I did not want to lose touch with. On February 15th, I got a message from my best friend telling me that you passed away from a tough battle with cancer. I was broken. That whole week I was completely shut down; I could not process the fact that you were gone. I regret not coming to see you sooner because now I have to live the rest of my life knowing that I was not able to say goodbye and thank you for everything. If I could go back in time to say goodbye, I would do it in a heartbeat.

Even though I won’t be able to come to you to tell you all about my experiences as I become a teacher, I know you will be watching over me through my whole journey and I hope I make you proud. Part of the reason I want to be a teacher is because you inspired me to want to change other people’s lives just like you changed mine.

Until we meet again, grazie di tutto (thanks for everything).