Dear Grandpa,

I realized something as I was thinking back on all of the great memories of the past 21 years of my life: you were there for all of them. I want to make sure I take the time to thank you for everything you have done to help me become the person I am today.

Thank you for being there the day I was born. You took mom to the hospital and stayed all day. You were one of the first people to hold me and I will always cherish the picture that was captured of our first few moments together.

Thank you for sitting down with me every day after school in the fourth grade to work on my math homework. I hated math and I was difficult to tutor, but I would not be an accounting major today without your patience.

Thank you for coming to all of my softball games in high school. Although sometimes your advice was a little questionable (“pitch it down the middle!”), I am so thankful for your support and it meant so much to me that you were there, wearing our team shirt and cap.

Thank you for making me ship all of my Amazon textbook orders to your house. I watched you flip through all of them for weeks and laughed at your excitement about what I would be learning the upcoming year. Every semester you ask for my syllabi so you can peruse them and familiarize yourself with my courses. When you get to a particularly interesting topic, you make sure to note it and ask me about it throughout the semester. You edit my papers line by line, “free of charge,” no matter if it's two or 20 pages. Thank you for caring about and investing yourself so much in my education.

Thank you for taking the time to clip newspaper articles out and sending them to me. Even though I tell you I can read it online, you take time out of your day to cut it out, put a stamp on it, and walk it to the mailbox. Although I may not show it, this means so much to me.

Thank you for encouraging me on my faith journey. You are a huge reason why I have strengthened my relationship with God since coming to college. You carve time out of your week to help those less fortunate, and I thank you for setting that example not only for me but for everyone around you.

I am one of the lucky people that gets to have their grandpa in their everyday life. I’m even luckier to have a grandpa like you in my life. Although I don’t always say it, I truly do appreciate all you have done for me. Thank you for being you.

Love,

Your Granddaughter