To my parents

I figured since this is the week of Valentine's Day, a celebration of love, I decided that I should celebrate my parents' love for me and how they have shown it.

To my parents:

Thank you for:

1. Deciding to keep me and not leave me at the hospital.
2. Putting up with me when I yelled and screamed as a baby.
3. Teaching me how to walk and talk, even though you might, once or twice regretted teaching me how to talk due to the volume of my talking.
4. Putting me in the care of a competent baby-sitter and, by doing that, exposing me to people from outside our family and immediate social circle, and giving me an early mentor.
5. Telling me to get along with my sister, she's the only one I'll have.
   
6. Teaching me how to read. This is one of the things I am most grateful to you for in my life.
7. Buying me lots of books.
   
8. Trusting me to the public school system when I came of the age for kindergarten.
9. Going to all of the little school events through the years even when you had things you'd rather be doing instead.
10. Buying my cactus when my fifth grade class grew them for a fundraiser.
11. Encouraging me to play an instrument and practice, even though I may not have appreciated it at the time (it took me a long time). You two instilled a love of music in me, especially in the classical music you used to play to get us to go to sleep.
12. Hosting my sleepovers.
13. Helping me transition smoothly from elementary school to middle school to high school.
14. Telling me to get an alarm clock if I wanted to be woken up at a time other than the time you were waking me up.
    
15. Promoting higher level classes to me, telling me that I was intelligent and could do anything if I put my mind to it.
16. Instilling a love of travel in me, even if it just was to the ocean over winter break.
17. Providing a stable home life.
18. Talking to me intelligently and letting me form my own opinions about conversation topics.
19. Helping me decide what classes to take in middle and high school, especially the latter.
20. Teaching me how to drive. I'm sorry if it was hard on you.
21. Letting me go on a date before my 16th birthday.
22. Teaching me little, commonsense things about life, knowing that I have a tendency to forget commonsense.
23. Coming to my rescue when I parked the car on the curb, but telling me that I had a lesson to learn from the incident.
24. Volunteering for my school events and classes, especially fundraising events and field trips. Other kids might have been embarrassed to have their parents chaperone field trips, but I wasn't.
25. Paying for the gas and insurance on the car. You might think it is a common thing to do, but a great deal of my friends had to pay one or both.
26. Letting me go to school dances and stay up late every once in a while.
27. Encouraging me to apply for as many scholarships and colleges as I could and supporting my final college attendance decision.
28. Planning my 18th birthday party and attending my graduation, both involving lots of family members.
29. Paying for so many of my college expenses. I appreciate this so much.
    
30. Realizing that I am growing to become independent but every once in a while I need the help of one or both of my parents.

I love you both very much.

Hugs and kisses,

Your daughter