I probably don't say this enough to you, mom, but thank you. Thank you for giving me the amazing opportunity to be where I want to be with my life- no questions asked. I am five hours away and yeah, I am happy with where I am and what I chose to do, but I know that I miss you like crazy every single day and I just want to hug you every morning like when I was back in high school. All the mornings I didn't want to get up out of bed, fighting you for five more minutes, not wanting to drive to do six hours of running around for classes and on top of it all, being co-editor of the yearbook senior year, I am truly blessed that you pushed me to actually get me out of bed every morning because if you didn't, I probably wouldn't be in college. Everything that I have ever done, you have been behind me 100% and there is no one else I would rather call mom than you.

All of the football games you watched to see me perform for the marching band and all the competitions for winter guard, I wouldn't have been able to do it without you being there in the stands smiling, waving your cowbell in the air and screaming. All the phone calls you got from band camp from me crying about the bug bites and me wanting to come home freshman year because I wanted to quit and ending my senior year becoming a lieutenant. That was all because you pushed me to become the person I am today and the performer I was for the RHS Marching Band and I can't thank you enough for that.

You give without taking anything for yourself and I seriously have no clue how you do it every day, but you deserve everything good in this world because of that. Every fight I have with a friend, funny thing I see on Facebook, sad thought that pops in my mind, I call you and it doesn't matter what you are doing, you always answer. You are not only my mom, but my best friend too, and I don't know what I would do without your crazy texts every day ending with a thousand kiss emojis! Even if we fight, it never lasts more than a day because neither one of us lets it get that far. We love each other too much.

When I look back on high school, I feel like I did not appreciate how much you actually did for me at all and I am truly sorry for that because you really did so much for me throughout the years to make me the person I am today. I am thankful for what you have done for me and what you continue to do every single day and I love you so so much, Mom!