To the teachers who made a difference,

Education is undoubtedly the future of America, of the world. It is power, privilege, and opportunity. It changes the way we think, instills potential in people, and functions as a mechanism for change. It is this privilege that is so often taken for granted. And often, the vessels that allow for this change, our teachers, are likewise taken for granted. This passive dismissal, this simple ignoring of the work teachers do is not something I want to be a part of. You have all made a difference in my life; the effect of your influence on my time in school has become a defining factor in my future.

Thank you. I could not find the words to express my gratitude for everything you all did for me. Thank you for praising my success because your praise was tantamount to telling me that I could do anything I wanted, and that my abilities, my talents warranted admiration. Thank you for letting me make mistakes, and for letting me learn from them; and likewise, thank you for helping me to realize my strengths, and letting me know that my strengths were far far more important than my weaknesses.

Thank you for listening to me; in a world where children and teenagers are constantly told to be quiet, you gave me a voice, and you taught me that that voice mattered. That my voice could make a difference. In the classroom, in the school, in the community, and in the world.

Thank you for challenging me. The world is not easy, life is not easy. You all have prepared me for this. In turn, thank you for giving me the confidence to face these challenges. In your classroom, I never felt discouraged from asking questions, from answering them, or from debating answers with others students. It is this confidence which you all instilled in me that has given me the power to pursue my college education with the same self-assurance.

Thank you for appreciating me for who I was. Thank you for fueling my creativity, my critical thinking, my imagination, and my passion for learning. The basis of educating is teaching about discovery and trying to instill a curiosity within students to discover. You all have done so much more than that for me.

Thank you for reigning over classrooms that encapsulated an environment that was safe and comfortable to learn in. Thank you for incorporating lessons of tolerance, parity, equality, and diversity between lessons on Charles Dickens, integrals, and French aristocracy.

Thank you for giving me all of the tools to succeed beyond graduation, into college, and the life ahead of me. I can only hope it is to be as promising as you have given me the ability for it to be. I am where I am in college because of you, and no letter of gratitude can ever tell you how thankful I am for that.