Dear Mom and Dad,

The day you’ve been dreading all summer is here and my days at home are over for now. I know it’s hard for you to move me in just to turn around and go home without me. When you want to call me to ask how I’m doing a couple hours after you leave, I’ll answer to reassure you that I’m doing fine (that’s for you, mom). When you want to come take me to lunch, make my bed and fold my laundry, I’ll let you do that too because I know you just want to help. And let’s face it, who can pass up free food and someone doing my chores for me?

The bottom line is that letting your baby grow up is hard and I understand that. Even though I’m excited about being on my own and being an adult, know that I still miss you guys and hate knowing that it’s hard for you to have an empty house. I don’t show it, but I promise it’s true. Sometimes I even get choked up and emotional when you leave too. Just because I’m moving back to school doesn’t mean that I will become nonexistent and uninvolved, though. Things will be different, but whether I’m moving just an hour away for school or halfway across the country, one thing will never change. I will always be your little girl.

I want to take a minute to just say thank you because I know I don’t say it enough. Thank you for helping me get everything I need to be settled in at my new home and for helping me move and making it possible for me to be where I am right now. The Lord knows I wouldn’t have known what all I needed to successfully be an adult without your help. Thank you for raising me right and preparing me to take on all of the responsibilities that I face when I’m on my own. I may not have always agreed with your rules, and fought them like the stubborn person I am while growing up, but they kept me in line and out of trouble. The lessons you have both taught me make me feel like I am ready to take on the world.

Thank you for always working hard to support me and believing in me, even when I may not have fully believed in myself. You never misguide me and you have always encouraged me to achieve my goals and set my mind on what really matters. Thank you for always being there whenever I need you for anything at all. From car troubles to holding me while I cried over dumb boys, you both have always made yourselves available whenever I thought my life was ending over the silliest things.

Last, but not least, thank you for loving me. We may not always see eye to eye, and we may still have arguments, but you have never failed to show your unconditional love for me in your daily lives. That last one’s a big one because I know I’m not always the easiest person to love. While I may not always be the best at showing it, I truly appreciate all that you’ve done for me in the last 19 years and can never thank you enough for it all.

I couldn’t have been blessed with any better parents. Without the two of you, I wouldn’t be who I am today or the woman that I am still becoming. I am forever grateful that you have invested so much of yourselves in my life. It is so rare these days for kids to have parents who are as present in their children’s lives as you have been in mine. No words can express how truly thankful I am that you both have made the efforts that you have to be so involved.

So for the last time, thank you for being the loving parents that you are. I owe you both big time.

Love,

Your little girl