I graduated high school back in May, and started college in August. During the period of time between the end of high school and the start of college, I hung out with friends, worked some odd jobs, bummed around during the dog days of summer, and spent time writing thank you’s to people who gave me a present at my graduation party. I wrote a thank you to everyone on the list, and even some thank you’s to teachers who didn’t attend my party. I wanted to let them know how thankful I was for their impact on my life, and I wanted them to know I really was going to miss seeing them on a daily basis.

But out of all of the thank you’s I wrote, I never wrote one to my parents. I guess I didn’t think I needed to because I had always told my parents thank you in person, and I told them thank you on multiple occasions surrounding my graduation day. But once the thank you’s were all said and done, my mom threw me a few hints here and there about having something in writing that she could keep throughout the years. It wouldn’t be something she would read every day, but it would be something that she could stumble across whenever she was cleaning out her office, or was feeling nostalgic and wanted to embrace it. But I didn’t find it necessary, and I didn’t know what I would tell them.

Flash forward to being in college for a few months, and I realized I needed to write them a thank you. Not a thank you for what they did for me at graduation, but rather as a sincere reminder that I am so incredibly thankful for them each and every day. I honestly don’t know what I would do without my parents, and I feel so blessed to have them.

Throughout my whole life, they’ve supported me in all of my activities and all of the decisions I’ve made. They’ve helped me learn from my mistakes, and they’ve prevented me from making stupid decisions. But they have also let me learn for myself. It seems like so many parents hold their kids on a two foot leash, and those kids can’t wait to break away from their parents and do everything they were told not to. My parents didn’t let me run free, but they let me learn and explore on my own. They were honest with me, and they trusted me to do what was right and make smart decisions. My parents guided me in all of the right situations, and words can’t express how grateful I am for that.

My parents may be my parents, but I also see them as my best friends. I never celebrate a victory by myself, because my parents are always there to celebrate with me. I never go through a loss alone, because my parents are always by myself to mourn with me. My parents have always been there, and I would be lost without them. So many times they have supported me when they didn’t have to, but they wanted to because that is the type of relationship we have. Parents are suppose to have unconditional love but their love goes beyond that. It’s something I can’t explain, but it’s something that has always been there, for both my sister and I. My family is what matters most to me. I know sometimes I’ve taken them for granted, and I want to change that. Now that I’m in college and at the dusk of starting life on my own and starting my own family, I realized how precious and important my time with my family is.

That is what inspired me, that realization, to write this. I am so grateful for my parents, and for my whole family, because they are the people who’ve impacted me the most in my life. Without them, I don’t know where I’d be. So I just wanted to tell them thank you. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me, and thank you for making me the person I am today. I am truly blessed to have you as my parents.