An Overdue Thank You

Now that I'm all graduated from college, it's time to start planning my future. This is one of the weirdest times in my life yet. I've never had to plan something that can be so permanent. Getting into a career just seems so final. It is a scary thing for someone like me to feel like something is final or permanent. A flaw, I guess. So of course, to make permanency an easier concept for me, I pick a career that is as close to being a student as possible, teaching.  As exciting as it is to think about actually having enough money to save and live very comfortably, it is also so sad to say goodbye to the title of "student". I have been a student nearly my entire life, and I love it. I've bounced around from school to school since high school, and as hard as it 

was to keep having to redo credits, change majors, make new friends, play college basketball for morons (excluding the Evansville coaching staff) and move all around, I wouldn't have had it any other way. I have had the best college experience. I learned so much about myself and the people around me. Becoming and English major has changed my life entirely. I love my professors and friends that have been so influential in my academic life. 

My parents have been such a powerful influence and support through all the years. I'd like to thank them publicly for their love and support. I'd also like to thank my sisters for their support. I don't know how many times I've had to call my sister Kat or drive down to visit her in California, just for her advice, love and support. Thanks you Sis. Thanks to all my close friends who have been there for me through it all. All the way from my childhood best friend Kim Lance to Kim McMillin, Cammie Campbell, Maya Gross, Kayla Burningham, Jen Allen and my Kristin B. Lyons. Thanks for always being there for me when I needed a push to get through school, a semester, a paper, a relationship or any other life stresses. I love you guys so much and want you to know how much your influence and help has helped me to succeed. And to all my other friends, recent and old. Thank you so much for your friendship and loyalties. It truly is such a gift to find real friends, some people will never find friends who are actually what they portray themselves to be. I have been blessed with many honest and real friends. I was looking at some quotes I've kept over my years in college, I hope you guys enjoy them: 

"A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same." - Elbert Hubbard

"A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends." - Ralph Waldo Emberson

"A single rose can be my garden, a single friend, my world." - Leo Buscagila

"A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down." - Arnold H. Glascow

"Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and those few be well tried before you give them your confidence." - George Washington

"Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies." - Aristotle 

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that gives value to survival." - C.S. Lewis

"I always felt that the great high privilege, relief and comfort of friendship was that one had to explain nothing." - Katherine Mansfield