Dear Mom and Dad,

It’s been nine months since you helped me move into college, helping me set up my dorm room with me, and then left me in this college atmosphere with numerous strangers not knowing where to start. I remember when my room was all set and done, and your time has come to leave me alone and go back home so I can adjust on my own. We all cried, it was a very rough and emotional time. Especially being I was the first child to go away in the family. It was hard adjusting to this whole new type of college ‘lifestyle’, and by that I mean; doing laundry by myself and not having to rely on you two to wash, dry, and fold my clothes, making/getting myself dinner and not having to rely on you mom to make me some delicious, real, Italian pasta, cleaning even though I did clean a lot when I was home but when I was too lazy, you decided to help me clean up by vacuuming and dusting my room, and lastly, having to go to the store by myself in order to get some groceries because I never went alone when I was home.

Coming to college, the only thing I knew that was predominately in store for me was how hard the work load is compared to high school. No matter how much studying you do, you always feel like you still need to study even more whereas in high school, you can study for an hour-an hour and a half, and feel confident for that exam. But in college, it’s a whole other story. And I realized that when I took Biology. Biology in high school was relatively easy (well for me), but in college, you need to study for at least an hour every day. Sometimes mom, I would call you up and tell you how stressed I am, and how high my anxiety is, crying on the phone. And you always told me “You can achieve anything when you work hard for it.” And I always stuck that quote inside of my head before taking any exam. God has a plan for everyone. So thank you for helping me distress and calm me down.

Dad, thanks for helping me on elaborating my papers/essays and being “Mr. Editor.” When I am at a complete writer’s block, I know I have to always call you so you can help me expand more. You always tell me such great ideas what to include, and when you tell me to email you my paper, you always find those small grammatical errors that I completely miss and I can’t help but laugh when I see those mistakes that I made. So thank you for taking time out of your night when coming home from a long day at work, and helping me with these papers especially via facetime.

Not having you two around because I am stuck at this school, with work on top of work, I know for a fact that I have grown into an independent mature young woman who speaks more intelligently and when I see your friends, they even tell me that I grew a lot from last year and yes, I have counted the amount of times they said that.

All in all, here are a couple of more things I want to thank the both of YOU for…

Thank you for allowing me to go away to my top school and letting me have a great college education so I can pursue the job of my dreams (and I can’t wait to pursue that to make both of you happy parents).

Thank you for dealing with my stress when I call you crying on the phone, feeling like I won’t make it because of how much work that is being put on my plate.

Thank you for allowing me to come home some weekends to just get off campus for a couple days, and distress myself from the campuses’ atmosphere and school work. The ferry is extremely convenient so you don’t have to constantly drive an hour and a half to my school and then back home.

Thank you for not being mad/upset at me when I tell you I can’t talk on the phone for too long being school work is absolutely killing me.

Thank you for being my support system; your support means the world to me and I can’t thank you enough for that.

Thank you for having so much confidence in me.

Without you two, I would not be the person who I am today and working towards as well.

So get ready mom and dad, because before you know it, I’ll be home in just a couple of days, spending 3 and a half months with you and I can’t wait!

Thank you for absolutely everything.

Sincerely,

Always Your Little Girl.