"Smooth Seas Don't Make Good Sailors."

Ben Barlow makes a great point in his song of the same name. An easy calm sea will never test a sailor and prepare him to face and overcome the worst of any storm. The same concept applies to everyday life. To everyone's life.

As far back as high school, I've had people doubting me, telling me that I would never amount to much of anything. I wasn't serious enough, smart enough, committed or cut out for anything great. And I just want to take this time and this opportunity to thank you for your doubt.

I want all of you to get one thing straight: your doubt gives me life. Everything you said to me breathes a new fire into me when I feel like I can't keep going. I would go as far enough to say that all of you, and a few specific of you have gotten me as far as I am.

Now, of course, me pushing myself and the unrelenting support I had did help in ways I'm not sure I am able to describe, but this letter is not for them. When I have Ph.D. next to my name, those letters will be for them and myself. This is instead for the people who didn't believe in me and still doubt me to this day.

I never took a lot seriously in high school, and why would I? I knew it was temporary. Four years of the same place and the same faces before we all split up and go away to college and lose touch. I knew that high school was the last four years I would get to enjoy being a kid and have minimal responsibilities. And I made damn sure I took advantage of that.

My transition into college was admittedly bumpy, but instead of offering support, you all just doubted me. I could still hear what you had said to me at the kitchen table. "Without my help and doing it my way, you'll only flip burgers for the rest of your life." I got down, my seas got rougher until I was at my breaking point and....I broke.

I took a semester off. I wasn't okay mentally and I needed time to figure myself out and put myself back together. People have told me since then that they never thought I would go back. That I would put it off and just never go back. I'm not sure if I was ever more pissed off than at that point. I went back to school that following semester, absolutely destroyed it. 3.35 GPA and my mental health was in a place that it hadn't been in years. I transferred to Cal U soon after and the doubt kept coming. Thank you. And I kept making you look foolish. You're welcome.

Every last piece of doubt that you hurled my way and gave treachours waters to traverse only turned me into a fine tuned captain, and I honestly couldn't be more thankful for that. You and everyone else helped me realize that I can be so much more than even I initially thought. One day, when I earn my Ph.D. while riding the wave of all your negativity and doubt, you better believe I'll be there to remind you of how far I've come.

Commit this to memory: I myself am entirely built up of flaws, imperfections and dreams. I am the weakness, I am greatness.