Dear High School Teachers,
I want to start by saying thank you. I admit that I took you for granted and never realized the impact your lessons and assignments would have on me. I graduate college soon, which means that my time in a formal classroom setting is coming to a close. Looking back on high school, I am baffled how we sat in classrooms for six hours a day, five days a week. I am even more impressed how you continue to do so.
I have been most thankful for your guidance in college when I’ve realized that you equipped me with knowledge that other students were not so fortunate to get. I may have dreaded writing and then rewriting an analytical essay on the symbolism in “The Great Gatsby,” but at least I know how. I never understood the role taking AP Human Geography would play in my life until I realized it is basically my entire major. Or how I was terrified every day during high school French because I felt inferior to my classmates, but my teacher pushed me to speak aloud over and over. This definitely came in handy when I studied abroad in France my junior year of college. There have been so many moments these last few years where I have thought about reaching out to my old teachers to say thank you, but I feared they wouldn’t care. I realize now how naive and wrong I was.
During my freshman year of high school, I was naïve enough to write in a personal essay about how “high school is the best time of your life.” I distinctly remember my English teacher correcting me with, “just wait until college,” and boy was she right. College has been unbelievable, fantastic, difficult, and so much more. I am terrified to graduate college and face the unexpected. I wish I had the same level of relationship with my professors that I did with my teachers. High school was good and bad and everything in between. There’s not enough gratitude in this world to give to our teachers who never gave up on us. We were awkward and stubborn and lazy, but despite our immaturity they were present and determined to empower us and help us grow up.
Thank you to all the amazing teachers who saw the best in us. I wouldn’t have made it here without your help.
Sincerely,
Your Humbled Student