Thank you for nurturing me.
For putting in nights without sleep – be it from nursing a crying baby, soothing a fever, helping with a project at the last minute, or worrying about my safety. For holding me after my first heartbreak when I thought the world was going to come to a crashing halt, and for showing me that it wasn’t and that I was better off if he couldn’t appreciate my worth. For allowing me the room to make mistakes – but for showing me how to learn and grow from them. For sacrificing your time to help me with my homework, to proofread my papers, no matter how terribly boring they were.
Thank you for providing for me.
For working hard so I could have not just the things I need, but most of the things I want as well. For always making my favorite foods when I come home from school and for cooking like a Food-Network-level chef. For taking us all on awesome trips.
Thank you for putting up with me.
For putting up with me when I was an annoying adolescent, caught in the strange stage between child and teenager and again when I was a teenager and thought that I knew everything. For tolerating me when I am stubborn and headstrong and maybe even slightly dramatic. For having the patience that it takes to raise someone like me. For tolerating me during my awful middle school years.
Thank you for teaching me.
For teaching me how to ride a bike, how to drive and how to cook. For teaching me to be loving, caring, compassionate and kind. For teaching me to treat everyone with respect, no matter who they are or how I feel about them. That my actions always have consequences – good or bad. For teaching me to always do my best and work my hardest. For teaching me that forgiveness is always the best option – but that it doesn’t mean that I should let people take advantage of me and my kindness. For teaching me hat just because I have an opinion, doesn’t mean that everyone will agree with it… or that I should share it with EVERYONE. For teaching me that quitting is not an option. For instilling in me that my word is a promise, and that I should never go back on that promise.
Thank you for showing me.
For showing me what it means to commit to someone for your entire life. For showing me how I should be treated in a relationship, through example. For showing me how to forgive and how to love someone without conditions or limits. For showing me that love is in your actions and how you treat people, not just in the things you say.
Thank you for seeing my potential.
For being so hard on me, because you knew I could do better. For helping me see my potential and realize the only limits I have are the ones I place on myself. For helping me realize that nothing good comes easy, and that sometimes you’ll have to sweat and maybe even shed some tears.
Thank you for being you.
Thank you for all the quirky things that you do, and for loving me unconditionally. Thank you for being exceptional parents and human beings - and not to mention, for giving me all of your awesome genes.
