In the constant whirlwind of change that was high school there were many people who helped shape me into the person I am today. Parents, siblings, extended family, friends, classmates, coaches, directors, and many more. I could write a letter to every single one of these people and still not do it justice. But you? You were a different story. You were the teacher who changed my whole perspective.
I could go on for days with all the things I want to say to you, but let me start with the most important part: thank you. Thank you for caring. Thank you for checking in with me when I did something out of character or missed a day. Thank you for noticing that I’d been sick all week and I was too tired to function but I was still in school because I couldn’t afford to miss another day. Thank you for seeing me as a person and not another test score.
Thank you for changing the way I saw school. Thank you for changing it from a place I was forced to spend eight hours a day to a place where I actually wanted to be (sometimes). Thank you for helping me see the beauty of education and all the doors it opened for me. Thank you for taking the time to actually show me these things.
Thank you for helping me out of my shell. Thank you for seeing a shy freshman who just wanted to be liked and teaching me that my voice mattered. Thank you for continuing that lesson until the day I graduated and being there to see it happen. Thank you for not hating me when that shy freshman became an outspoken senior who just wouldn’t shut up. Thank you for helping me find my niche and, maybe most importantly, thank you for providing an environment I could do this in.
Thank you for being someone I could trust. When life was beating down on me, thank you for being someone I knew I could talk to. Thank you for giving me and so many other students a safe space to be ourselves. Thank you for being such a positive role model. I may not want to be a teacher like you are but all I can hope is to be half the person you are. Thank you for teaching me that I’m more than capable of being that kind of person.
At the end of the day I guess all I really want to say is thank you for changing how I saw myself and the world. Your job description was to teach a curriculum and produce students who score well but you did so much more. You taught me how to be a good person. You taught me I was worth something and my voice mattered. You taught me how to express myself. You taught me to not only appreciate the education I was and am able to receive and not to take it for granted, but to love every minute of it. Thank you for all of these lessons and so many more. Thank you for changing my perspective on myself, my world, and my education. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
