To My Family

After 13 long years of public school, I am finally finished! I will graduate on May 26^th from Portage Central High School. This is, to say it dramatically, the end of life as I know it. So I have written this letter in gratitude for shared memories of the past, and excitement for adventures to come.

My childhood: the freedom of running barefoot through the dandelion-strewn lawn in Ohio, venturing into the woods to discover my poison ivy allergy, and swinging joyfully on the coveted yellow swing started my life off with a strong love for nature and physical activity. Music introduced itself from the guitar of John Baker, the gentle voices of my parents, and my sisters’ piano practice. In elementary school, I learned the pain people could cause one another. I discovered what it meant to be alone. In middle school, I developed my voice, which people admired, and my dancing, which people discouraged.

High school was a new world…a place where I could be whatever I wanted to be, and more often than not, several things at once. I further developed my voice, intellect, and dancing, until people viewed me as accomplished in all three of them. I struggled to “find myself”, and finally realized that while no set of characteristics could describe me, a dictionary of adjectives could. I made mistakes. I cried and laughed hysterically through minor car accidents, but remained totally calm when my Toyota Camry was totaled. I saw pain I had caused in the eyes of people I cared about. I felt the damage I had inflicted on my relationship with Heavenly Father. I did what I could to make up for my shortcomings, and learned that when I can’t do anything else, I can let it go. In the midst of panic and uncertainty, I somehow found peace within myself. And with it, I found my calling in life—to bring people to acceptance and serenity.

So I leave High School with a love for dance, music, and people, ready to move into a new world where I cook my own food and set my own curfew, and searching for a place where I can use my talents and passion to shut misery out of life and rediscover the feeling of swinging over dandelions, barefoot and covered in rashes, but completely and entirely happy.

I’m terrified and excited about attending Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah this fall. I am so excited to be closer to my sisters, but I will miss my family in Michigan and Indiana. I will miss being irresponsible and stupid, and having friends and family to break my fall. You are a part of my family. You have taken part in my life, and therefore influenced my future. I love you so much, and I am so grateful for the part you have played in my lunatic of a life. I have so many wonderful memories of my childhood, and I am excited to start out on my own and create a new life for myself as an adult. Thank you!