Thank You.
Thank you for the kind words; thank you for all the support. Thank you for hanging out with me into the late hours of the night. Thank you for showing that you care when I go on and on and rant about things I shouldn’t really care about. Thank you for the laughs, cheers, and playful taunts. Thank you for all the happy memories; this job would never be the same without them.
Thank you for challenging me; thank you for helping me push my boundaries. Thank you for helping me see life in a new perspective, and thank you for showing me what it means to be a genuine person. Thank you for being great teachers. I am not talking about teaching in the sense of teaching me the rules of our job, but with leading by example through each step you take and every word you speak. You all have taught me how to live life to its fullest and to soar free above it all.
Let’s cut to the chase. While all of these sappy “thank-yous” above are important, the most important one I need to say is thank you for being like a second family to me. I have never felt so welcomed, loved, and supported by any other group of people.
I am going to be completely honest; I was extremely intimidated by you all at first. I knew a lot of you prior to all of us starting training a month ago. Some of you were CFs in my building last year. Others were and still are some of my closest friends. Some of you I only knew in passing, but I was still told of how great of people you were. The fact that I was going to working alongside some of the most amazing people on campus for an entire year was extremely intimidating and exciting. Heck, I am still excited to be working with you all this year, and I don’t think my amount of excitement can run out.
I think we all forget sometimes that we depend and thrive on the energy of those around us. When you are surrounded by a bunch of people giving off negative energy, you automatically have negative feelings as well. For example, you could be sitting with a group of people who are talking about how awful and mean one of their professors are. You could have no part in this conversation, but you still feel the same angry feelings the people around you have without any good reason. Nobody, that I know at least, likes feeling sad or angry for no real good reason.
Luckily, you all are the complete opposite. Whether it just be when we greet each other when we pass by on the way to class or we share a deep conversation, our shared interactions never fail to put me in a happy mood. Seriously though, just seeing any of you around campus always makes me smile until my cheeks hurt. The fun memories that we have shared so far have brought so much joy into my life that I am reminded of them each time I see each of your smiling faces. I can feel my heart exploding with an energetic zest when we are around each other. To sum up this ramble, the fact that you all are able to make someone’s day happier by just being you is remarkable; not many people can do that.
I know that our job can be hard sometimes; we do a lot of work that often goes unnoticed in the eyes of others. While this is heartbreaking, remember that all of the greats that have made the world the way it is don’t get recognized either. For example, we may have holidays to celebrate some U.S. presidents, and we may learn about the people who invented the Stock Market or electricity in history class. We may rejoice in our war heroes and idolize celebrities.
However, do we ever talk about the inventor of Toaster Strudel? Do we ever make a holiday in honor of the person who invented the warm and cozy blanket? How about the person who decided that naps were a thing? All of these inventions are quintessential to my life and the lives of others, yet the people who have created them are living their lives unrecognized. Sure, they may be deemed as “trivial” or “unimportant” compared to the other greats in history and pop culture, but they are still important to the lives of many.
Just like how the inventor of naps may get pushed off to the side in favor the inventor of “more important things,” it may feel like we get pushed to the side as well. Don’t let this get you down though. Think of it in terms of the Superman Comics; we are the real-life Clark Kents who get to witness the joy and happiness of the people we help from the sidelines without the people knowing that we are the ones who helped them and that in itself should make you feel good.
If you need a reminder of how much good you do to the world, just look at all of your smiling residents and remember how much they love you, support you, and appreciate you. Remember how each and every person on this staff appreciates you and what you do as well. Sometimes it is better to be recognized by a few important people than a large group of people who hold no significance to you, and sometimes people will show that they appreciate you in the most awkward of ways, like a published article on the internet.
I am going to close this awkwardly long letter with one of my favorite quotations:
“Notice the people who are happy for your happiness, and sad for your sadness. They’re the ones who deserve special places in your heart.” - Unknown
I can tell you right now that there were previously about 60 open spaces in my heart, but you all have now filled them.
Lots of Love,
Taylor