You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

Tonight is the Senior Dinner for the four seniors at ballet. I graduate from High School in sixteen days. I move to Mississippi in three months. Yet, I still feel like I'm seven years-old half of the time. It seems completely crazy that I am about to go off to college; it really seems like only a year ago that my now twenty-five year old married sister went off to Auburn University and I was eleven. Yet here I am, eighteen, graduating high school and moving on to the next step in God's plan for my life. All of this has gotten me to thinking about the people who have helped me get here, and how they have impacted my life. From now until graduation, I'm going to be writing some letters to the people who have impacted my life, either in the past or more recently.
-taye

Hello, Goodbye, Hello, Goodbye
Dear Family . . .

Dear Mom,
     Thank you for giving me life. I guess you are pretty much the main one to thank for my existence, besides God that is. Nine months of carrying me around, hours of labor, and years of watching me grow up so quickly before you eyes. Thank you for everything you have done, do, and will do in the future for me. You have taught me so much. You taught me to love God, to have a good attitude in every situation, whether that is easy or difficult. You taught me to cook and to always clean my room and make my bed (however, I won't be making my bed in college, sorry). I have taught you a lot too though; I have taught you how to use the many electronics you have had over the years, and still don't know how to use.
     I have so much to thank you for. Thank you for your patience with me. I know I can be stubborn and sarcastic much of the time, and yet, here you are, after eighteen years, still being patient with me. Thank you for being friends with Lisa Moody, Christine Oliver and Claire Batchelor, your friendships with them brought me to the best friends I have and will ever know. Thank you most of all for signing me up for dance classes when I was three years-old, that might possibly have been one of the best decisions you have ever made in your whole life. Thank you for all you do for me, as well as the rest of our family. I promise I will call you at college and that I will come home as much as possible. But promise me that every now and then, you will brave the roads of Jackson, Mississippi to come and see me dance at school. I love you.



Dear Dad,  
     Ragan is mostly like Mom, and Spencer is like nobody really, but me, I am definitely my father's daughter. I remind myself of you every single day. I possess so many traits that came from you and you only: my sarcasm, my coffee addiction, we even have almost the same car. It must be that youngest child bond we have. God places the man as the head of a household, and you have fully lived up to that responsibility. You have loved me unconditionally, shown me the paths that I should walk, and been my strength when I needed it most. Thank you for accompanying and taking me on numerous trips: Philadelphia, D.C. New York, Texas, I have so many memories from these trips that I will remember for the rest of my life. Thank you for teaching me how to drive, I can only imagine the patience it must have required. Thank you for sitting through hours of dance recitals and Nutcrackers, I'm sure they weren't the most exciting hours of your life, but it has always meant so much to me that you were sitting in the audience. I love you.

Dear Ragan,

     We are pretty much complete opposites, but that's what makes our friendship so fun. You are crazy and hilarious, and such a joy to be around. You constantly make me laugh whenever I am with you and am so thankful for everything you have been to me over the years. Sorry I kept my stuff so messy the years we shared a room. If it makes you feel any better, I still keep my stuff messy. When I was younger, you were the person who encouraged me to keep dancing. I looked up to you so much back then, and I still do, only in different ways now that we're older. You teach me so many life lessons, and it is so nice to have someone who has been through it all before to prepare for the future. So yes, we're different, but it makes me love you even more.

Dear Spencer,

     Oh brother, we have had many good times and bad. I guess it's just an unwritten rule that every brother and sister absolutely have to argue. I think that's the majority of what we did when I was in middle school and you were in high school. But that aside, I have so many good and funny memories with you as well. And now that we're older, we get along just fine. I am so thankful for the big brother God blessed me with, and the talks we've gotten to have over the past year or so. I really thought about everything you are to me that time you were in the hospital for a week, and I really appreciate you and everything you are. . .especially everything you are to me. You are a shoulder to lean on, a protective person over me, a boisterous, but funny guy, and I know I'll always have someone to celebrate my birthday with for the rest of my life. I love you.