"Where am I?"
It's a question I have to ask myself from time to time. On a good day, I know my physical location, but this question, hopefully, is more involved; I have to pause, think about who I am today, and wonder, "how did I get here?" At first I'm tempted to congratulate myself for following my dreams, believing in myself, and never giving up – but I soon get over that. It's taken a few years for the light bulb to go off, but now I understand what really got me through.
I realized that our "thank you" goes out to our families, friends, and teachers. And when those simple words aren't enough, we go further to share our most genuine smiles, our longest hugs, and our most unregulated fits of joy with the people who got us through. After all, when life seemed flat, they added fizz – precisely that, along with ideas, laughter, and values. Still, we can't forget the times when people were just there for us, too. There were rough patches, undoubtedly, and those closest to us simply stayed on the phone longer or gave us their ice cream. It's wild how they don't even know how much that meant to us – how much they mean to us. May we be lucky enough to keep these people in our lives. May we never forget what got us through – or, more truthfully, who.
