Dear mom and dad,
I am finally on my own. There is no more of mom doing my laundry and telling me to clean my room and no more of dad cooking me steak dinner or asking me to cut the grass. But every decision I make will be a decision my mom and dad spent 18 years preparing me for.
My mom taught me that the world is a cruel place and there needs to be more happiness and optimism. So smile and look at the bigger picture. You cannot change what happens throughout the day or even life but you can either learn from it or live a bitter life because of it. She taught me that my heart will get broken and it will get broken more than just once. However, my mom took 9 months to form my heart so it is important for me to protect it and not just give it away to anyone. They must earn it.
My dad taught me people are crazy. And I am a teenage girl who needs to keep an eye out for those crazy people. Not to be stereotypical, however, I am at a very vulnerable stage of my life and there are many people out there willing to take advantage of that. But little do they know, my dad has taught me how to be prepared and I will not fall into any of their traps. Try me, you losers.
Both of my parents have taught me so much together. Starting from what true love is to respecting the people I come across on a daily basis. Having parents that have been together for almost 25 years has made it very easy to recognize how a man should treat a woman and what true "happily ever after" love should look like. And respecting people is not up for argument. Whether I like the person or not, it is imperative that I respect their opinion and decisions in a manner that leaves them yearning for my opinion and decisions in return.
Needless to say, I am ready to take on college, mom and dad. I am ready to take the exam I have been studying up on for 18 years. And I am ready to ace the hell out of it. I know for a fact that I will experience some unpredictable events from here on out and I may not tell you about all of them, simply because I don't want you to worry. Believe it or not, I listened to you when you talked about not playing on my phone while I am walking to my car. Or about pouring my own drink and not setting it down when I go to parties. All the things you thought I wouldn't listen to, I heard the loudest.
Thank you for spending the past 18 years preparing me to take on the world. This is such an exciting time in my life and I am beyond grateful to have been so prepared for it. I will always call and I will always come back to visit. Because after all, I owe you the opportunity to be able to take a deep breath and say, "that's my daughter" with so much pride in your voices.
Love, your baby girl