It’s a funny thing coming home after a long time away—whether it be a vacation or just away with friends for a longer while—it looks the same, smells the same, and feels the same. After a while you’ll realise what changed is you. When you’re gone you meet new people, experience new things, and when you return home you’ve changed—the things you saw and people you met made a certain impression on you. When I was nine I was told that every single person I will meet will impact my life in some way, shape, or form. What I didn’t realise was that I will make an impression on those people too.

I turned eighteen this past Friday. I’m officially an adult. I can buy a Costco Card, I can get married, I can join the military, I can do whatever my dear heart pleases—not that I will do any of those anytime soon… well maybe the Costco part but you get the point. It marked a major milestone in my life—whether I like it or not. But instead about making this post all about me I want to make it about you, faithful readers. So to those who have touched my eighteen years of life—including the ones who I have yet to meet and the ones who are no longer in my life:

I hope all is well with you. It’s been awhile. A day, a month, a year, a decade, or even if have yet to meet you. Either way, hello. I turned eighteen this past week. Crazy, I know. I hope you’ve had beautiful holidays, birthdays, and I hope the months and years in-between were beautiful too. A lot is quite different since the last time we spoke. I have grown—not so much in height but in wisdom and maturity. To tell you the truth I learn more about myself everyday. I felt I needed to write all of you to say thank you. Thank you for impacting me in such ways—good or bad—and making me the person I am today.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my life recently—even more so right now as I sip my black tea. I’ve been thinking about who I’ve inspired and who has inspired me; where I’ve left my finger prints and where I will leave them in the future. I’ve been thinking about the choices I’ve made and the people I’ve met and how every single person—directly or indirectly—has in some way pushed me into the trajectory my life has taken and will continue to take. So because of this, I really just want to say thank you. Maybe you’ve been with me since the beginning. Or maybe, as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow so aptly described, “We were just two ships passing in the night.” Either way, our lives crossed; thank you for being a part of me.

To my first friend to whom I had my first sleepover: thank you for understanding why I needed the night light on. It made me feel safer.

To the girls who first talked behind my back: thank you for showing me the importance of true friendship and for also helping me learn how to pick good friends and the qualities they have.

To the teachers that helped my imagination flourish: thank you for giving me the courage to invest myself in something that is important to develop. Thank you for encouraging my ideas and for making my mom happy at the parent-teacher conferences.

To the teachers and people who seemed to hold me back from what I wanted: thank you for showing me to appreciate my own creativity and showing me don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something.

To those who turned me down: thank you for helping me understand that rejection isn’t the end of the world.

To the kids that were “Too Popular” to be my friends: thank you for allowing me to learn to give everyone a chance.

To the boy who gave me my first kiss: thank you for waiting when I wasn’t ready.

To the coaches who pushed me to my highest potential: thank you for not giving up on me.

To those who underestimated me: thank you for teaching me that I’m more than what others think.

To the friend that talks to me at all hours of the day: thank you for making me know how it feels to laugh until I cry and talk about nothing for hours.

To my third and forth grade teacher: thank you for teaching me the most important thing I could ever learn; thank you for bringing me to Jesus and inspiring me to give my heart to Him. Thank you for being there for me when I needed direction while I learned what it means to be a Christian.

To the administration and other faculty at my Christian school: thank you for instilling me with the right knowledge I needed—and still use—at such an early age. I believe character is set at an early age, and I’m thankful mine was set with the things you taught me in mind.

To my best friend: thank you for showing me the qualities that a true friendship holds. Thank you for teaching me things that a sibling or parent could never teach. Thank you for being there for me; our laughs are something I’ll hold near and dear to my heart.

To my dearest friend at school: thank you for giving me the resilience I need to complete the toughest days, hours or minutes. Thank you for helping me when I’m ill, and thank you for saying you look up to me; you are loved more than I could possibly describe.

To my sister: even though we aren’t biological I love you and thank you for showing me what it would feel like to have a sister—someone who gives me tough love, and someone who gives me advice when I need it.

To my editor: thank you for correcting my posts and my ramblings, as well as making me a better writer. I couldn’t do it without you. Thank you for being an ever better friend too, I am blessed to have you in my life.

To the administration and faculty at my current school: thank you for believing in me, and trusting me that I can accomplish what I want most. Thank you for teaching me all that you know—whether it be a lesson on history or life. Thank you for being my second family.

To the doctors who believed me when I knew something was wrong: thank you for not denying it. Thank you for believing me and also for trying harder to find a solution. Thank you for inspiring me and showing me where I am meant to be when I am older—to inspire and heal children that were sick like me.

To the doctors that didn’t believe me and who were arrogant: thank you for inspiring me to be a better doctor and for inspiring me to fix the medical system—so it’s not based on doctors who are there for money but rather because they have a passion to heal.

To my first boyfriend—my first love: thank you for showing me what it feels like to truly give your whole heart to someone. Thank you for caring and loving me the way you did for two years. And also, thank you for breaking my heart; I am grateful it was you who was my first love and heartbreak. You will always have a special place in my heart, and even though I don’t say it now, I’ll always love you in that same way when you first pulled me aside and said I have a crush on you—innocent and vulnerable.

To his dad: thank you for raising a son that is a gentleman; one who respects women and owns up to his faults. You have, throughout the years, been a better fatherly example to me than even my own father. I love you and thank you.

To his mom: thank you for being giving; you have helped my family when in need; you have helped me become the young adult I am today. You are a second mom to me, and I just want you to know how much I love you. Thank you for always being there for me.

To the friends who turned their backs on me: thank you for helping me learn what true friendship means.

To the one who listened to me when I wasn’t okay: thank you for asking and pushing me to tell you what was wrong. Thank you for not judging me.

To my dad: thank you for helping me understand what qualities I truly want and do not want  in a husband or for a father to my children.

To my mom: thank you for being the woman you are and for raising me to be a smart, independent, Godly woman of character. Thank you for providing, teaching, and comforting through my eighteen years of life. Thank you for being there for me when I needed a mother most. Thank you for being strict with me, it has helped me develop a sound mind. Thank you for, mom for loving me and for being my best friend when no one else would.

To my grandmother: thank you for loving me like your own. Thank you for your love, and also helping and providing when struggles came. Thank you for believing in me, and sticking up for me when I needed it. I’ll always be your pumpkin.

To the strangers who’s stories I’ve heard, no matter how briefly, in a gas station, planes, trains, subway cars and everywhere in between: thank you for allowing me to see a small piece of you; it’s an amazing thing to see.

And finally, to the thousands of old versions of me and all the future versions of me that will ultimately leave me: thank you for all the life lessons, the tears, the smiles, for allowing me to look back on my life with a happiness that will never cease, and for sacrificing yourself so I can continue to find myself over and over again.

Our lives are touched my hundreds of people every single day. Life is, in essence, a mess  of connections, of threads connecting each one of us together in some strange way, shape or form. No matter how frayed or worn our connection is, I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you to those who have impacted me; thank you for the threads that hold us together.

So as I sit here with my tea— that is now almost gone—a beautiful thought trickles into my mind… isn’t it great to think that that the happiest days of my life have yet to happen yet? I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen in the next eighteen years of my life… but until then readers, I guess you’ll hear from me soon.

Many Thanks & Waiting Patiently, Uptown Maven