Dear Tina,

My dear cuzzo. More so like a sister because we are just that close to each other. Born a year apart yet feels like we both jumped out of the womb at the same time and have been inseparable ever since: I couldn't be any more appreciative for you. Being the fact that since day one of us being able to piece together the significance of memories, you have always been my right hand partner who has stood by me and has been the source when I always needed a good laugh that would go on for hours or just someone to listen and understand me in the sense of where we reside in our age range. I couldn't possibly rely on any other individual out there who I could piece together as a true friend being that, unlike the rest, you've never shy away from being there when I have needed a friend the very most. From us holding countless weekend sleepovers when we were young, to taking randomly ridiculous numbers of naps together like lazy old people, to now where we are reaching close to our halfway mark of our twenties, where we still have no regard for being adults (although we still handle our responsibilities and priorities as such), nothing has ever changed and our blood bond has been stronger than any other out there. I thank you for all that you have been and will continue to ever be.

Dear Grandpa [The Ol Fat Man],

From your young ol Meatball: I respectfully give forward my most heartfelt gratitude for the individual of male significance that you have been in my life. For having my Father being embarrassingly absent in my life, you took into your own hands to enlighten, educate and assist me with prominent points of my life that would be from a different outlook than what I'd receive than others. You've given me insight from a man's perspective that I never received anywhere else. Additionally, you've given me memories alike of what I should have had growing up. Being there to give me tips of how to play the game of when it comes to women, teaching me the ways of respect towards others but simultaneously teaching me not to be a fool either, and spending quality bonding time for the memories that I will always cherish for as great as they were and always will be. From such times of teaching me how to drive (via golf cart), showing me the proper way how to cook a real good steak, keeping me hungover on a collective high of laughter from your random banter of your early days when dealing with moronic individuals and of course my personal favorite, the countless weeks after weeks as a young boy when I'd sit in excitement with you watching Thursday Night Smackdown, they were all the times I hold dear and will never strip from my mind.

Dear Nana,

More so alike my guardian Angel: there aren't enough words to describe just how much light you give me on days in to days out. To know that I've had someone be in my corner along the side of my Mother, all these years, to motivate me, educate me and fill me with wise insight through experience and rewarding wits, I have not a single regret for all that I have been given from you in quite the life I've lived. I am most thankful for you always being that one source that comes collectively as the relaxing state and peacemaker of the family, as well as for you working so hard to keep everyone happy, despite the several few who do not deserve it. You do so much and aren't given as much in return as you rightfully deserve, especially for someone who retired a year ago and yet STILL won't stop contacting your "former" co-workers about what's going on in the business. However, I appreciate you to the fullest degree and could not be any more gratuitous for your unconditional care and devotion.

Dear Alanah,

Surely you are too young to even understand what I am about to say to you but hey, you'll read it someday I'm sure. 5 years makes a huge difference in any aspect of ones life from going to being the only child to now having a new set of feet walking around the house. At first, I was very apprehensive for having a sibling at the very most because it was not a brother, as I slightly always wanted. Yet, in a turn of events, having a sister has been just as rewarding than I had formerly thought. Your silliness and happy-go-lucky vibes always keeps me at bay for what it means to stay young at heart. To see you running down the hallway like a wild child everyday you come home from school or begging me to give you piggy-back rides is a joy to my own personal sense of continuously refreshing and revamping my goofiness that has always stuck with me. Although time does indeed fade on and day by day you are growing fast, one day you will be in my same situation I hope: able to take on life's hurdles but never lose your stride of having fun to your own pace and continue not to care what anyone thinks of it. Thank you little sis.


Dear Alexa,

The beacon of my light that I never thought I neither A. thought I needed and B. that I thought I would never have. I honestly have never saw this deliverance of such a wondrous bond coming. But I am the most appreciative that it has taken place. Since your arrival, things have been so much more brighter. I smile triple as much than I regularly do, and I manage to shift the way that I take life with my actions and my words, because just so much as your smile reassures me that life is way too beautiful to take seriously, or to feel as if I need to be so shelled in. You may not know this, but you have brought out a sense of change in me that has been locked away for quite the longest of time. For when I am with you, I am brought out of my shell to do things that I wouldn't normally do or simply at all. From going to the museum or library, to exploring artistic galleries, writing articles, attending sporting events and even so much as little past times like creating sand art: you make me more enlightened to enjoy life not just with you but for myself at my own leisure. Additionally, you've shown me the way of what it means to feel love at it's grandest of extent. For when I thought I knew what affection meant, you turned the tables and you raised the bar on just how much I could take away from falling in love with someone, truly. I couldn't begin to imagine how to give back to you what you have done for me except continue to love, support and cherish within your graces for how long we aspire to set out on our voyage together. Thank you for being my Sunflower.

Dear Mom,

Thank you.

Legitimately for everything. Without you, nothing that I am to this day would have been possible. There have been a several few who have had a hand but you alone have been the very peak of the mountaintop that has put the very most work into establishing the life that I have grown to. From a young age with so much laziness resting on my shoulders, absolute zero regard for what my future would hold and a blank sense of direction towards what moves I wanted to make in my life, I am the most of appreciative and greatly blessed that despite my drive for trying effortlessly to do things my own way without any fair correct path of guidance, you never gave up on me. To the man that I have become to this day, dodging the bullet with "life" engraved on the shell, by the graces of you being the shield to keep me safe when I so foolishly many times before either blindly insisted on taking the hit or tried my hand at being my own crutch, a lot has certainly changed. I take a moment more and more each and every day to reflect that I, not alone, but with your help, have made it. I have survived the weight of the world stepping on my chest because you have done so much fighting for me than I could have ever hoped to do for my own self. Although I have not told you in some time, to which I know rightfully so that I should, I just want you to know that I appreciate everything that you are, have been, and always will be to me. My sole best friend among any in all sections of my life, because you alone have pushed me so far despite dragging my feet along the way, because you believe in me, because you see something in me, and because you know that I am capable of conquering the world to any degree that I choose. Thank you. For not only showing me the way, giving me the tools to which have brought me to the mountaintop, but also for giving so much life to this boy become man. Thank you for giving me the life I live through your sacrifices, hard work, determination and inspiration through all that you do that gives me hope and sensibility that all things are possible if you just never give up with shooting for the deepest star in the sky. Thank you for giving me the chance to see and hear the many joys of life, as well as to physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually enjoy all that has been set out on the table for me to take on in my existing tenure. More importantly, thank you for being my rock, my backbone, my support, my inspiration, my heroine, my Mom.