To those teachers out there who do not give up on their students,

Thank you.

High school was a rough time in many of our lives, and trust me, I do not wish to ever relive it. For some, it was the best four years of their lives, and for others, they could not wait to get out of there. We gave our teachers so many reasons to stop caring, so many reasons to forget that we were even enrolled in their class.

We were the students that when a teacher called on us for an answer we could not give them one. For many reasons, even though we were present in class our mind was absent, or we just simply did not care about the class.

Some students were so mentally drained from the constant bullying, convincing themselves to go to school every day was a constant fighting game. They did not want to have to go face-to-face with the other students who constantly put them down.

Through out the whole day, they were waiting to go home, expect when it came to your class, you gave them a reason to be at school and love learning again! When you asked them how they were doing, it felt so genuine and made them know someone cared.

No matter what was going on, you made those students feel at home. For me, that was from my two favorite Art teachers. They always greeted me with a loving smile and said my name as if I belonged. I wanted to thank all of those teachers out there that never gave up on their students. You all do not know how much you mean to us, or how your heart warming voice helped carry us through the day. Many of us students did not feel like we belonged when we were in high school, but you made us have a safe haven.

Thank you, for when I did not turn in my homework or projects, getting on my case and making sure I did them. During senior year, I got really bad senioritis, but you did not let that stop me from doing my absolute best in your class. Thank you, for helping me form a passion that will help mold my future. My two art teachers (photography, ceramics, sculpture) who let my creative side grow and thrive, for some it was their physics teacher who made them so interested in the quantum theory they went on to college to get a degree in Physics, and others it might have been the ESL teacher who helped them learn how to speak English so they would fit in with the students who did not speak their language.

You guys rock! You helped create a legacy that you did not even know about. Far too often do we see teachers give up on their students, and then every student finds that one teacher who will go to the end of the world to help them. I want to thank you, for you are part of the reason we got out of bed everyday, and the reason school became bearable. You guys have helped save many lives without even knowing it.

Without your enthusiasm, so many students would have taken their lives by now. Not only do us students need to thank you, but so do their parents, because if it were not for you, they could have lost their child forever, or their child might not have graduated from high school with a career choice in mind.

Not a single day goes by were I do not think about how my two special teachers are the whole reason I am where I am today. Teachers do not get enough credit as it is; they work with students who curse at them, do not even are about that class, and students who clearly wish they were somewhere else.

Somehow every day, you manage to come to work with a smile on your face and lift the spirits of so many students. Teachers are some of the strongest people I have ever met, and without them, so many students would be lost in the legal system by now or gone for good.

Thank you,

From all the students who's lives you have changed.