This past week was one for the books, because it seemed as though everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. My parents were overseas visiting our family, and they left my siblings and I home by ourselves for the first time. Ever. Thus, you could imagine how excited we were: finally, our parents trusted us enough to let us stay home alone! Yet it seemed as though everything went down, instead of uphill from there.

First, our pool grew algae. Yes, you heard me right: algae. What was once a beautiful, clear, crystal-blue became a splotchy and sickly green. Then, I got sick with sinusitis (joy), and my sister got an ear infection (double-joy). And to top it all off, our toilet broke, flooding one of our bathrooms and pouring down through the second-floor ceiling straight into our kitchen.

Needless to say, I don't think my parents are ever leaving us home alone again.

Yes, last week was literally the week from hell, complete with huge antibiotic pills and leaky light fixtures. And if I ever have to open a bottle of bleach again, I think I'll faint. But it was also a week of lessons, in various subjects: responsibility, what adulthood is really like, how hard it is to maintain a house. But above all, I learned a lesson that I thought I'd mastered years ago: appreciation.

My parents are the two most hard-working people I have ever known. And though I always thought that, I didn't feel it as much as when they weren't here. I've seen them come home from work, cook, clean, sort through bills, do pretty much everything, but I never felt the weight of that workload before. But after last week, I realized exactly how much they do for my siblings and I.

Its exciting to grow up and become an adult. But honestly, it isn't all fun and games; it's also a ton of hard work. And sometimes you'll have to do chores (even when you all you really want to do is flop onto the couch and watch t.v) for the sole reason of it being your responsibility. There are so many little things that I often forgot about that my parents are constantly doing, like taking the garbage and recycling bins out to the street. Putting away meals after dinner. Even making sure to drop off our prescriptions at the pharmacist's, and picking them up when they're ready.

I realized that I do take for granted the fact that my parents do all of these things for us, and more. Not in a selfish way, because I love them and try my best to make their lives easier as well. There are just these little things that they do for us solely based on the fact that they're our parents, and they're trying to make our lives wonderful because they love us. And those things should never go unnoticed, no mater how small they may be.

Now I understand how hard it is to be a parent, and how I am so not ready to be one myself. Yet my own parents never complain about the work they do for us. Rather, they constantly tell us how much joy and happiness we bring into their lives, when in reality, they are the light in ours.

So thank you mama and daddy. Thank you for everything you do for us, but more importantly, everything you are for us.