Dear Mom,

First off, and most importantly, I love you. It gets lost in the midst of our hectic lives, but I truly do love you and have been so grateful for all of the opportunities you and Dad have provided for me. When you’re reading this, I do not want the title to fool you. Even though you taught classmates of mine in third and fourth grade, and even had a Math lab with me, this letter does not merely reflect your excellence in academic teaching. This letter comes from a 19-year-old who thought he knew the world so well, and someone who you have been with his whole life.

We have an interesting way of expressing our emotions towards each other don’t we? In the heat of an argument (one in which we eventually realize we were both in the wrong in some way), my love for you doesn’t disappear or diminish. It’s a way of expressing it, because we both know we want the best for each other, and that we have to learn from the mistakes we will make in life. While there have been a number of obstacles we’ve had to hurdle together, I commend and thank you from the bottom of my heart for sticking by me, even when I was at my worst at times.

There are times in life when I feel like I can do it all by myself, but it takes someone like you to show me just how much I need my mom. It's not an easy thing to admit, but I need you more than I could have ever imagined at 13 years old, locking myself in my room because, well, who really knows, and who really cares? It was petty arguments like that when the relationship between us became estranged, and for that more than anything else I have ever done, I apologize.

I apologize for every time I thought and even convinced myself that I would somehow be better off without you. You have taught me so much about this world. How cruel, yet rewarding it can be, and how not to squander opportunities. We might have had extremely different childhoods, but you understand a lot of my grief with a younger sibling. You taught me how to deal with my problems the way an adult needs to. You gave me all of the tools and virtues I need to be successful in life. So Mom, thank you for all of the lessons and all of the consequences. They're not easy to deal with at the time, but I can tell you with the upmost certainty, they have made me and continue to make me, a respectable man you can be proud of. I love you, Mom.