Dear Teacher,

Thank you for establishing my work ethic.. Without your initial assigned projects and papers to be done in a timely manner, I would not have learned time management skills as well or had been responsible for my actions when I did not manage my time so wisely. I now take those skills very seriously when it comes to college exam times, large bulky papers and finals every semester.

Thank you for believing in me and getting me to where I am today. It was your constant encouragement and support that essentially built me up to continue with my education and to basically want to learn even more.

Thank you for always answering the dumb questions that you definitely had just answered five minutes prior to me asking and for dealing with me on a daily basis when I would have rather been anywhere else, preferably sleeping, but I was sitting at that school desk in front of you.

Thank you for putting up with my awkward stage. I was not the best looking back then with the braces and all and a weird sense of what I called "fashion" at the time. I know you guys see it all while teaching at a high school, but I appreciate the time and effort you put into each and every lesson every day (regardless of what we all looked like at the time).

To those of you high school teachers that I still keep in contact with, you guys are amazing. You have made a lasting impression on me when it came to using you for reference letters, coming to you for advise, attending our graduation parties, or just wanting to catch up with over periods of time.

Thank you for helping me establish a general respect for teachers. As us students move on to working with a learning from professors who essentially do not have as much free time in their schedules for one-on-one help, I really appreciate the time and effort you took to not just help us learn, but to also get to know us over the time frame of high school.

Thank you for proofreading every paper, discussing every grade, treating me fairly and giving me the respect needed as a student. Not everyone has the opportunities that I have had to go to school and to have really good teachers who thoroughly prepared me for college and life after high school, and for that I am forever grateful.

As much as I, myself, along with the rest of my classmates constantly complained about the homework, tests and quizzes you gave and prepared for us, I wouldn't be where I am today and wouldn't have learned all those lessons that may have seemed so pointless at the time without you all. You all, with the help of our parents truly are what prepared us for college and life after high school.

Because of you, your previous students like me, can sit back and reflect on how great our high school teachers are and how much they really did mean to us no matter what we thought was and was not important back then in class.

As Henry Adams once said, "A teacher affects eternity. He can never tell where his influence stops."

Sincerely,

A previous high school student who appreciates every thing you ever did, big or small.