High school: just a chapter of your lifelong book. A love/hate relationship. Starting out as little guppies in the ocean, scared to be late to class, to drop all of your books, looking forward to when you can be the kings and queens of the great blue ... Then all of a sudden you blink and you are grabbing your diploma and throwing up your cap, only to rush out and never look back on the chapter you had just written. However, every once in a while it is nice to reminisce on the good, bad, crazy and everything in between. To the people who were there, day in and day out, right along side us through it all:

Our teachers.

Luckily, I went to two different high schools, which enabled me to experience twice the knowledge! Both schools were small enough to make it easy for me to befriend my teachers. I was able to make small talk anywhere, share great stories and even confide in some. So, even though I was sad to leave behind the great memories they helped me make, I have the luxury to keep in touch, living through some of their posts on social media (Some of my teachers were cool enough to let me add them on Facebook after I graduated!). And if I really think about it, it isn't so much the school that I miss, or even some of my peers; it is my teachers.

Dear teachers,

I truly thank you and appreciate all of the things you have done to get me to where I am today. I never got the chance to express how thankful I am for you, so here is my chance to make up for that.

Thank you for keeping your patience with me as I stayed endless hours before and after school for a little extra help. You made time out of your day to help me better understand what you were teaching, making sure that I understood the material so much I could teach it myself! Even though I was about to pull all of my hair out from frustration, trying to comprehend things like, geometry, stoichiometry, hablando español (speaking Spanish) ... you refused to give up.

Thank you for not giving up on me. Even when I had nearly given up on myself, you pushed me and held me up. You helped me learn to believe in myself and the most valuable thing that I gained wasn't receiving my diploma, but learning my worth.

Thank you for not just being a part of my experience, but also a part of my life. Let's face it, you were basically my parent! You were not just a random person who taught me about random academics; you were the one who greeted me every morning with a chipper smile, ready to share your knowledge with me, even if you didn't have coffee in your system yet. You were interested in what I did outside of school and helped me organize my time so I could complete my homework and do the things I loved! You supported me every step of the way and made school my home away from home.

I know you always said, "There is no such thing as a stupid question..." But thank you for not making fun of my stupid questions! Let's be real, I have asked some pretty far out ones!

Thank you for helping me take a step further and pushing me to go on to college. I spent the majority of my high school career stressing about getting into college. I am who I am and where I am now because of you. Most importantly, thank you for teaching me how to type my papers in APA format; I really did need to know that!

Thank you for spending your days with annoying school kids. Trust me when I say I know how annoying we were, and we definitely knew when we were getting on your nerves! You woke up just as early was we did, if not earlier, just to come to work to deal with us Jekyll and Hyde-like students who didn't really want be there. But you were the one there for us, day after day, counting down the days until Friday. You even counted down until the days of summer right along with us until we graduated. Each year at graduation you shared a little piece of you with everyone. You are a saint for that.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity — dare I say it — to enjoy and have fun with my learning experience. Thank you for making the four years I will never get back four years I will never forget.

So, thank you for what you do. Whether it be because you love teaching, love kids, love your summers off ... I appreciate that you spend your life giving. You willingly give up your personal time to make sure your students succeed, and we are all forever grateful for that. Your job is extremely important because you help shape the future, and the world would not be filled with success stories if it weren't for you. Whether you realize it or not, you do leave a mark on us. You make an impact. Even if the students you are teaching right now are driving you absolutely nuts, your teaching is still 100 percent valued.

Thank you.