Dear High School Teachers,

This letter is addressed to each and every one of you who have had me in high school. In fact, this letter is addressed to the teachers who have never even had me in a class but went out of their way to talk to me. Every single one of you who I have had a connection with made a huge impact on me. I surprise myself with how much I remember from your lessons, and how easily I can relearn a concept from high school that I had forgotten, because of the foundation you have laid.

It was quite obvious to all of you that I was the shy girl in class, well in most classes. If I was talkative in your class and raised my hand then that means you made me feel comfortable to share my opinions. You all tried to get me to come out of my shell, I'm happy to say that I broke out of my shell after the first couple weeks of college. It only took me four years but I did it, thanks to all of you.

To my English teachers, thank you for everything you have taught me. I hope this letter is acceptable and that I have followed your writing rules, I apologize if I have any mistakes. I think we can agree that I'm not perfect. One tip that has helped me majorly was being corrected senior year that "should've" is "should have" instead of "should of." I made that mistake multiple times throughout high school and now it finally stuck with me. I'm sorry that I put very little effort into some papers, I'm happy to inform you that I spend hours on my essays now and I even start essays a week before my professors even assign them for homework if they were available on the syllabus.

To my science teachers, honestly I miss all your cool experiments in class. In middle school I didn't do well in science, but you all made it enjoyable and I was able to learn from you. Senior year Physics was perfect, especially when we were able to do the experiments ourselves if the boys behaved and followed the rules. Shoutout to my Physics teacher and the teacher's assistant. You two had your hands full with the guys in our 13th period class. I hope some of the girls and I made the class worth it with our good behavior and participation. I was always excited to go to your class at the end of the day because you two were so kind to me and I appreciated you both.

To my math teachers, I never really connected with any of you and had a special relationship but thank you. I hate math and I know it is not an easy subject to teach and make sure all of your students understand it, it's a lot of work. Thank you for not failing me.

To my history teachers, somehow you made me stay focused in class. History is not my cup of tea, but I did learn a lot from you. I may have looked like I was half asleep in your class every day, but I did retain a lot of the information. History comes up quite often in some of my classes and I always freak out in my head when I remember something from high school. I still question the whole JFK conspiracy we learned junior year.

To my independent studies teachers, you all deserve a majority of the credit to my academic success. Your classes were so much better than a regular study hall, you all helped me with my homework and helped me study for tests. You pushed me when I wanted to give up and felt hopeless on a subject. You all tried different studying techniques on me to see what would help me be successful. All four of you are the reason for my success, you never gave up on me.

To my foods and nutrition teacher, honestly taking your class right before lunch was perfect. Thank you for some amazing recipes which I did use over the summer still! I ate things I normally wouldn't have made myself and I feel like it tasted much better than it would at a restaurant.. That is if I followed directions correctly. Thank you for letting me change my seat and sit next to my guy best friend every morning. By the way, I miss your buffalo chicken dip, I miss you more though.

To my photography teacher, thank you, thank you, thank you. I can not say that enough. I may not be the best, but because of your class I found something I'm passionate about. I use skills I learned from your class when I go to concerts and take photographs there. Like I said I'm not the best, but some of my work is pretty darn good if I say so myself I'm not a sporty person so photography is a good match for me. Thank you for having a class that I enjoyed and for helping me find a love for something. I still have the one ribbon I got in the art show senior year hanging in my room.

To my health teachers, thank you for teaching me about the dangers of date rape drugs, any drugs for that matter, and drinking. I'm probably the only college student who sits in her dorm all weekend and does homework and writes articles instead of partying. I don't want to take any chances after what you taught me, so thank you for keeping me safe.

To my Spanish teachers, let's be honest the two of you knew I did not need to be in the lowest level of Spanish. You two were amazing teachers and I did not want to go up a level or else I wouldn't have had you sophomore year. Your class was so much fun and I loved your teaching styles, you made learning a new language fun and enjoyable...not boring. Some of it still stuck with me which comes in handy when I'm back home at work since the cooks at my job speak Spanish. Thank you for all the laughs I had in class.

To the teachers' assistants, thank you for always coming over to me and asking if I needed help with anything. I never liked to raise my hand for help and you were all aware of that so you came over on your own to help me. Thank you for that, I was too shy to ask for help on my own. Each of you were so kind to me and I hope you get a full time teaching position soon, you deserve it.

To the teachers who were never my teachers, you went out of your way to talk to me and even help me sometimes. Thank you to Mrs. Randall senior year for helping my family, you helped us out majorly and I can not thank you enough for that. Thank you for helping me with Algebra 2 also, you helped me study for a lesson that I did not understand at all. I was helpless in Algebra and you took time out of your 13th period to help me study for a big test. You broke down the lesson for me so I would be able to understand it more clearly. I remember I got a B on that test, I was so excited since I normally got Cs. Thank you for your help even though you were never my actual teacher.

Thank you to the one teacher who pulled me aside in May and told me to look around my class. Hopefully, you know who you are and remember this conversation. You pointed out to me that I was the only student in our class going straight to a four year college while everyone else was going to a two-year or not going at all. You pointed out my accomplishments, you told me it was a big deal for someone with a learning disability to accomplish as much as I did and get into my number one school. You have no idea how much that short conversation impacted me. I push myself every day to get good grades, to prove that I can and will be a teacher one day.

Once again, thank you to all my high school teachers.