Dear Mom,

I've watched you struggle. You've struggled every day for a while now. Leaving you and going to college was one of the hardest things that I have ever had to do. I know that I was always your right-hand man, your therapist, your best friend, and your shoulder to cry on and I am sorry I can not be that for you all the time anymore. I am so sorry that I can not be there to help you out at the drop of a hat like I did when our crazy lives were getting just too much to bear sometimes. I wish I was not so far away. I wish that furthering my education did not have to be so far away from you, Mom.

I know there was so much more you could have and would have done if I had never come around as early as I did. Becoming a mom at sixteen definitely threw a wrench into your life plans, but you learned better than most people about how to roll with the punches and take whatever life threw at you with a grain of salt. I, also, know that raising me has been hard. As much as I wish I could say I was an easy child, I definitely was not. I pushed every boundary you set for me and then some, but you knew when to let me keep pushing or when I needed to be pulled back. For a while, I knew it seemed like you could do nothing right when it came to me because I just did not listen. I want you to know that that was not your fault. I went through things that you don't know about still to this day, but I want to thank you for sticking with me through all of the bad and somehow making it all good in the end.

As hard as it was and as much as you struggled, you did a pretty damn good job raising me and always making sure I feel loved and safe at all times. You have shaped me into the confident and respectable young woman that I am today. I want to thank you for never giving up on me even when I had given up on myself. I want you to know that our long talks about life lessons have not been forgotten and everything you have tried to teach me will stick with me for the rest of my life. You are my best friend, my rock (haha), and the person who keeps me going when I feel like college is too unbearable for me to continue. I love you so much and I hope you never forget that.

Love, Brittany