Dear Sutton,

You’re probably a little shocked to be reading this right now, just as I am a little shocked to be writing this. As the title says, you’re my role model, but I wasn’t expecting you to ever be. Now granted you’re also my friend, sister, teammate and mom, but that’s beside the point.

When I first met you 9 months ago, I never thought we would be friends. I was a little scared of you and just thought that you would be another person I dance with. Little did I know that you would soon become the one person I could trust with almost anything, and look up to.

Let’s be honest here, you probably don’t even see yourself as a role model to me. If you do, you’re way ahead of me, but if you don’t, that’s exactly what I was expecting.

You came into my life at a time where I truly needed you. I used to think that it was just someone like you, but no, I truly needed you. I needed a person who cared about me and would lift me up when I’m down and I could go to with anything. I needed someone who would tell me when I’m being dumb. I needed someone to push me to be better every day. I needed you.

But a lot of the time, role models aren’t role models because they’re there for you. A lot of people haven’t even met their role model in person. You’re my role model for many reasons, these are just a few.

You’re my role model because you’re hard-working; I don’t know anyone else who works as hard as you every day. From your schoolwork to your leadership roles in organizations, to work, you are constantly busy and hard at work. You put everything into what you do, and it shows every day.

You’re my role model because you’re compassionate and caring. You help people by listening to a problem or situation and giving advice. You actually care about other people and want the best for them too. I know that I’ve gone to you for advice several times in the past few months, and you always give me your honest opinion. Sometimes it’s not what I want to hear (like when you told me not to buy crocs), but it’s what I need to hear.

You’re my role model because you’re always there for me, and even when you don’t respond to my goofy, pointless texts, I know you’re always a phone call or text away when it comes to the important things. You proved to me early on that I could trust you, and trust is so important to me as I don’t trust easily. But with you, trust was formed early on, something that surprised me a lot.

By now I hope you see all the reasons why you slowly, but surely became one of my role models. I never expected to gain a role model this early on in college, or even someone like you in my life. I don’t know what I’m going to do not having you be a 5-minute walk away for the next 3 months, but I do know that you’re always a text or call away if I need anything, or a voicemail if you don’t respond.

Thank you for being one of my biggest role models and a person I look up to without even realizing it. (Unless you did realize it, in which case I should probably shut up now). One day I hope to be half the person you are.

Love,