Mom and Dad,

Thank you.

Thank you for putting food in front of me for every meal. Thank you for pushing me to eat the green things I didn’t like. Thank you for keeping my hand out of the candy jar. I know now that you did your best to keep me healthy while I was growing up, and I was not the most cooperative individual.

Thank you for dressing me in the morning during those years I was too small to dress myself. Thank you for double checking my outfit when I was. Thank you for not letting me wear a striped red shirt with a purple polka dot skirt.

Thank you for making me take a nap in the afternoon. I fought with you that I was not tired, but you knew better. Thank you for seeing the sleep in my eyes, and making sure that I was safely tucked into my bed at two in the afternoon.

Thank you for teaching me to have proper manners. A “please” and a “thank you” go a long way when asking a question. It seemed forced when I was a toddler, but I now understand that it is the decent thing to do.

Thank you for giving me an education. Not all people have the same opportunity. Thank you for making sure I understood my “ABCs” and “123s” when I was in the elementary grades. Thank you for trying your hardest to help me get through the difficult year of Algebra 2. Thank you for making me rewrite my book report. Thank you for pushing me into giving my education the most effort I could.

Thank you for not letting me wear make-up as a preteen. Those were questionable years for me fashion-wise. Thank you for not letting me leave the house with a face full of blue eye shadow. I still shudder at the horror of what might have been.

Thank you for all of the vacations we took throughout the years. Whether it was a trip to a historical location, a day at the amusement park, a week in the woods with a campfire and a fishing pole or a 12-hour ride southeast to the beach, I will cherish all of these memories.

Thank you for giving me chores to do around the house. They helped me to learn responsibility. I felt important because it means that you trusted me to do something for you. I may have complained about doing the dishes and wondered “Why can’t we put this in the dishwasher?” but now I know what you were doing. These lessons learned young help me in my work place as an adult. I learned from you that I didn’t have to be told everything that needed to be done, sometimes it’s best to do a chore voluntarily.

Thank you for teaching me about forgiveness. I had to tell my brothers and sisters that I was sorry, even when I didn’t feel it. The importance of forgiveness cannot be stressed enough. It is more than the words, it is the humility to tell another person that you were in the wrong. That is the real thing that I needed to learn.

Thank you for showing me what it means to love. How important it is to do that through words and actions. To pay attention to people when they feel alone. To check under the bed for monsters. To lock the doors at night. To work long hours to put food on the table. To play so as to hear children’s laughter. To read stories. To show what the world looks like outside of our immediate location. Thank you for loving me with all of my imperfections. Thank you for loving me enough to push me to be the best version of myself.

Thank you for everything.

Love,