As graduation rapidly approaches I think
back over the people who have influenced these past four years and am truly
grateful for each of the blessings and joy they brought to my journey! In no particular order here are some of
those people who have helped me become who I am today!
To every roommate or suitemate I have
had the pleasure of living with, thanks for listening for sharing and for being
a part of the everyday journey. For many of us we were strangers before living
together, but we life chatted and we learned and we laughed, we left as better
friends and with memories I’ll hold onto forever. I am stronger and
probably cleaner because of your gentle reminders to shower and eat and take
each day on with a smile.
To all of my sisters I am blessed by
each of your beautiful and unique personalities, I always know that phi sig
will hold a dear place in my heart for helping me become a leader, a sister,
and possibly most importantly a pretty awesome puffy painter. And especially to
the callas thank you for pizza rolls, family nights, life chats, mad straw
skills, and late night princess battles, you are the best fam jam and continue
to be a support and a bundle of joy and laughter.
To my community of faith, wow.
I am not who I was when I came to college because of each of you. I
admire each one of you who I worship with, who I have studied the bible with,
who I have spent many late nights singing with, who did ACCL with me the first
and second time, the brothers and sisters who served as SMCs with me.
This community has been a constant body of strength for me to run too and
what holds all of these other pieces together. Because of all of you I
fell more deeply in love with god and his heart for this world and I pray that
this community will continue to grow in the coming years and be a place of
refuge, strength and joy for all those who encounter it.
To my student life people, ra staffs,
hall directors, and everyone in between. I am more confident and wiser because
Of your leadership. I have learned to love deeper and to accept each of
you and your vivid personalities as friends, I would not be as motivated or as
diligent without each of you. To all the hooligans who I call residents
thanks for eating my snacks and being patient to have work orders put in, I
cherished living with all of you in each of our communities.
To my cohorts in the world of
Panhellenic I can't imagine working with any other group of incredible women.
I am lucky to have been a part of the growth of our Greek community and
to have done it with all of you. I'll never enjoy late night paper
sorting, or the millions of recruitment pictures as much as I did with all of
you.
To the wonderful women who served as
presidents with me, thank you for your patience as I treaded the waters of
leading us through changes and growth, I am blessed to have spent Wednesdays
dining with each of you, and getting to know you as leaders and friends.
To my alternative breakers, I still
cherish each of the weeks we spent together across the country humbling
ourselves and using our gifts to serve others. From dry walling a laundry
room, playing the fish game, learning how to use a nail gun, and watching as
the concrete foundation for a house was poured, I wouldn't have wanted to do it
with anyone but each of you. I am glad we got dirty and tired together
and that we became better stewards of our world.
To my CLW family, I never imagined
what an amazing summer would ensue when I met all of you for the first time as
I hoped off that plane and walked into a sea of USA lei wearing friends! I am
grateful for your friendships and for the chance to grow among you, I am glad
the we worshipped together, crafted together, got messy together, and
especially that we petted cows together. I will always hold our summer
together as one of many firsts and new adventures. I am even more blessed
by relationships that I still share with you years later, especially to my joy
counting friend and the ways that God has interwoven our stories together :)
To my ASP family because of each of
you I understand love, and overalls, and PXL. I am thankful for the late
nights we spent planning and making hardware lists, for the early morning
adventures to the hardware stores, and for each and everyday we had the
opportunity to adventure together and just talk about life. Thanks for
reminding me to shower and loving me even when I didn't, for eating Nutella and
ice cream and reminding me that happiness is more important then fatiness, for
patiently answering my questions and letting me answer yours, and for eating
countless peanut butter sandwiches while wishing we had taco salad. And
most of all for letting me see the work of God through each of you, each
volunteer, every family, and all the community members we had the chance of
working with. I am forever blessed by the extended family of staffers
that I laughed with, cried with, learned with, and snuggled with. I pray
that the relationships we share will last long into the future and that our
phone calls will continue to connect us and the new memories that we each are
experiencing on our journey.
To the breakfast club I am not quite
sure how we became a thing, but I ate more pancakes and sausage in just one
year compared to the rest of my time at alma, thanks for being early morning
motivation and a reason to get up and for letting me wash dishes on a regular
basis. I am happy that we didn't just share breakfast but study time,
milkshakes, and hugs too. I miss our breakfast adventures especially
pumpkin pancakes!
To my kiltie band family I am so
happy that we marched together, sweated together, and made music together. Five pm will forever be the time that I
associate with band practice, you were my first impression of Alma and even
though I was homesick at first you quickly welcomed be to the family.
Some of you have become my best friends, my sisters, and my residents.
Wherever we go we will always share the love of a good performance,
kilts, true scots, blue ribbons, bagels, and so much more. I am thankful for my
baritone family I will always think of you through indoor show paper airplanes,
purple shorts and many McDonald's breakfast trips!
To every person who has been a study
buddy, helped me survive a class, worked on math with me, or been in class with
me. You helped me become a
critical thinker and understand new and old concepts. I’ll always cherish late night library dates and study
sessions before tests.
To the Thursday friends, I became a
better euchre player and a better fruit snack eater from all of our Thursday
nights. It was wonderful playing
and laughing and walking the halls with you. To my partner thanks for wearing hats and belts and never
being focused. It was a joy to
know that I would have the chance to unwind every week with all of you!
To my new family at Alma High School
getting to work with all of you has been quite the adventure. I am so glad to have learned and grown
as a teacher, a person and a friend with all of you. I’ll always have a little panther blood in me!
To my incredible family who has been
there though all of these journeys, thanks. They let me explore and find out who I was and never stopped
loving me. Thanks for plane
tickets and visits and phone calls whenever I needed them!
It has been an incredible and life changing four years. I know that God placed each one of you in my story for a reason and I am glad that he did! I am excited to start the next chapter of life and for each of you to continue on your journey :)
