I feel like I can never find enough opportunities to tell you how thankful I am to have you. Or sometimes I neglect to when I should. So because all of this can’t fit on a birthday or Mother’s Day card, I’m writing to thank you for blessing my life with your love that you show me every single day.

Thank you for not rubbing an “I told you so” in my face every time something in my life went wrong, even after you had clearly warned me months or even years prior.

Instead, you held me and told me everything will be OK. You let me make mistakes so I could learn from them, so I can take those lessons and apply them to the rest of my life.

Thank you for always supporting me in every sport, club, or any other extracurricular I chose to pursue.

Thank you for dedicating your weekends driving to and from the soccer fields in the worst weather conditions possible, or spending late weeknights attending meetings and presentations. Your attendance and support have always made a world of a difference.

Thank you for letting me express myself growing up.

I think we can all agree when I say the junior high years were weird. Really weird. But instead of telling me to not put those fire engine red highlights in my hair or to not wear those super high knee socks, you let me be myself. You let me grow up and discover who I am as an individual; I was never self-conscious at 13 because you let me be weird, free, and happy. Even if it meant you had to take me in public like that (….sorry).

Thank you for patiently listening to my college related breakdowns.

Did I change my major three different times in the first semester of college? Yes. Did I break down sobbing to you that I may not be on the right track for my life and career? Yes. Have I called you angrily ranting about idiotic and irrational professors? Uh-huh. Did I call you a minimum of three times a day because I needed you, or just wanted to chat? Absolutely. And even through all of this you answered my hundreds of questions and gave me the reassurance that I need.

Thank you for having sixth sense when it comes to friends and boyfriends.

19 years later and I finally believe you. After a lot of trial and error, I now understand that if you say that you don’t get a good feeling about a friend, that I should probably remove them from my life, or when I should be cautious of guys because they “just don’t sit right with you”. This is where I tell you that you were right all along and I should have just listened. But what teenage girl would do that?

Thank you for being my best friend.

Thank you for being the first person I go to with my problems, the first person I want to tell my biggest news to, the person to always give me the right answers to all of my questions, and the person I admire with all of my heart. I know that “moms shouldn’t be their daughter’s best friends,” but you are exactly that. And I love you so much for it.