I want to thank you for everything that you have done for me... because it is a lot.

It started out when I was young. We were at a nursing home with a church, singing to people who lived there. While we were singing, I met an older lady who was sitting in a wheel chair. As many four and five-year-olds do, I introduced myself and handed her a flower. I instantly had a new best friend. We held hands for the rest of the time that we were there. I remember it very often and think about how you taught me from a young age that everyone is a friend, no matter if they are 15, 35, or 85, everyone and anyone can be your friend.

Next, you had me volunteer to do things... a lot. Sometimes you'd call me and tell me that I was going to be serving food and tea at a Women's Tea, teaching a Sunday School class, working a band concert, or some other crazy thing. When I first started doing those things, I am going to be honest, I was not excited at all. As soon as I started doing these things, each one of them changed my life. This taught me that giving your time, can make a bigger impact than giving money.

Thirdly, you gave me the confidence to do things kids my age do not do. I am going to college out of state, 250 miles away from home. I race cars at 110 miles per hour. You gave me the ability to do something that I never thought I would do (start wrestling as a junior in high school). I was confident enough to change my major half way through my college career at a college 250 miles away. All because you guys pushed me to better myself in ways that I would have never done. With all of the confidence that you gave me, I will be able to try the things that people said couldn't be done.

Finally, you showed me where hard work will take you in life. You taught me that just because things get hard, money gets low, life is not going to bend over backward to make it easy. It does not mean that you quit, in fact you taught me that when those things happen, to stand up and make yourself known. Whether you get hit by a baseball (yeah, I got a real good black eye) or you find out that someone close to you has an illness, it does not mean that you quit.

You made me do things that I never wanted to do. Yet, because you did that I have become a better person. You drove roughly 2,524.1 miles and around 38 and a half hours in three weekends back to back to back (basically all to Vermilion and Faith, South Dakota.) Two of those weekends you spent moving furniture and your kids into their new houses.

I can never thank you enough... but I will do my best to make you proud to call me your son.