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The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at IUP chapter.

I have achieved so much in my life, and I wanted to write a thank you to those who have always stuck by my side. I have always been the person that cares too much. This has caused a lot of hurt in the past as those leave my life for what they think is better. Little did they know what they had lost. I know my worth and I know who I am. I am a strong but insecure person with the biggest heart and mind. I am a friend. I am a daughter. I am a sister. I am a shoulder to cry on. I am a lover. I am me. I am me and the people who have stayed have seen me grow, achieve, and conquer. When you leave, you miss the best parts, but if you left then you weren’t meant to be a part of them anyways.

I have learned that life is all about loss. You live to watch others die and then eventually you die. Loss is the hardest thing that I have had to overcome but yet, it has never broken me. I have always had the best support system with me to help me through the self-doubt and the hardest days. Loyalty is important to me. If I have a secret to hold, I keep it. If I trust you then I expect trust back. If there isn’t loyalty, then there is no relationship. The person you commit your feelings and thoughts to is someone who you expect to stay. If you were sent the link to this article, I trust you and I love you.

I am almost to the end of my undergraduate college career, and I have so much ahead of me. Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for making memories with me. I needed a distraction from the reality sometimes because it is just hard to take 24/7. The thing is that I had the best memories from my last two years of high school and my first two years of college. The pandemic was hard, and I almost fell into a really hard place. I was there emotionally for people but not physically since we were at home all day, every day. However, you stayed. You always stayed through my dumb spells and mistakes. I am forever grateful that you are able to be a part of my life. Whether you have entered my life since the beginning or just join, you put an imprint on my heart. When someone leaves, they just make me stronger. They help me realize my worth. Thank you for being here at any point in my life because without you, it wouldn’t be as fun. As I continue on to bigger things, I hope that I have you by my side. I can’t wait to see what else I can accomplish because in the end, it is to make everyone I love proud, especially you.

Thank you for staying and believing in me.

Alicia is an aspiring doctor. She intends to graduate from IUP in 2022 and attend Medical School directly after to become a medical doctor specializing in pediatrics. She enjoys watching movies, hanging with friends, and community service. She is a dog lover and has a pug names Porky that makes her smile on her worst days. Family is everything to her as you probably have read.