After each Sunday comes around and my mom calls me to make sure I survived the weekend and asks me about what I have planned for the coming week it makes me realize the years at home I took for granted. Coming to college and being on my own for the first time is an adjustment that is not scary, but one that my parents have done their best to prepare me for. For that I am forever thankful.

Every time my Dad makes the drive to school for just one night to take me to dinner it helps me come to realize that they miss me just as much as I miss them. The reasons I miss them could fill a novel but the main reason I miss my parents is because when I came to school it was like leaving two best friends of eighteen years. We have our arguments and disagreements, but the laughs and memories shared for nearly two decades could not be replaced by anything that may happen at this place called college.

So thank you, mom and dad. Thank you for pushing me to do my best and helping me strive to do whatever I wanted that made me happy. Thank you for backing me up with all of my crazy decisions whether they are right or wrong. Thank you for helping me apply to so many places in order to make me happy with whatever decision I may have made. Most of all, thank you for urging me to go to the school of my dreams. The excitement shared when the “big envelope” came in the mail is a moment I could never forget and will cherish forever. Thank you for looking at the large tuition bill and saying, “We will make it work. You are going.” Thank you for taking the time out of the busy schedules that you have in order to take the campus tours multiple times. Thank you for making the trip up, in two different cars, to drop me off freshman year with all of my stuff early in the morning because I was so excited.

Almost three years later it is easy to tell that you always wanted me to do what is best for myself and to always be happy. As hard as it was to leave I am sure it was just as hard for you to let me go. Eighteen years is a long time. But the memories made in those eighteen years will carry on long after the years of college are over and done with.

So when the time comes for me to walk across that stage on my graduation day just know that I may be going even further away but the only reason that any of this could happen was because of everything you have done for me. The further I may drift in distance, the closer I will be at heart and even though the kid you raised so well is not so much a kid anymore, I will always remember the days that were. So, thank you, mom and dad. For everything.