Dear mom,

As the first day of classes looms, I'll be getting used to waking up without you in the next room. I won't waddle into the living room to find you there with the dog, watching the morning news. I won't be telling you how cute the dog is or how upset I am that she left my bed when she heard you wake up. I'll be waking up to go to classes without you and our fabulous little dog.

As I trundle from class to class all day, I'll miss walking into your room to have chats with you all throughout the day. I'll miss coming home from work and telling you about my day, or even coming home just in time for us to take a synchronized nap.

I'm really going to miss watching tv shows and movies together. It's a small ritual that I've always enjoyed, and it'll be sad watching our favorite shows without each other and each other's commentary.

I'm happy we got to have the last good night together as I prepared to head into junior year. Chinese food and games are perfect and I'm glad we got to spend time together before I was up packing all night.

Thank you for supporting me so much on my fitness journey this summer, and I'm going to miss your support to what I was doing because it will definitely be difficult to keep up with my routines without being here having you as an extra little push.

I'll be missing you and our little condo family a lot this year. I'll even miss the neighborhood drama and being able to talk about it with you. I'm glad we got to have a relaxing summer, and I wouldn't want to change a thing.

I'll be home to visit soon, but thank you for being the best mom I could ask for, and I hope you and the dog have the best time together ever. Send me lots of cute pictures, and I look forward to your surprising texts about what's going on here.

Love,

Your daughter