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I am so incredibly proud of you. I don’t really say this to you often enough do I? You know why? Cause it seems so obvious that I would be proud of you, that I think I forget it is still super important to say it. And sometimes, you do so many great things, that I am almost embarrassed to share it all on social media cause it feels braggy. So then I don’t share but then I think you wonder why I don’t so now I will 🙂 

You are entering your Senior year (how?!) and you have already contributed so much to your school. You set goals for yourself Freshman year and you have met all of them. You just received the GPA that you will include on your college application and… wow. You have challenged yourself in your course selections each year. Every spring, I question if you are pushing yourself too hard and each year you have proven that you know what you can handle and you excel academically. The grade stuff is important of course but it is all the rest that makes me the most proud. 

You are an amazing leader and your teachers, coaches and peers value your leadership skills so much that next year you will be Varsity Soccer Captain, DECA CEO, Lead Peer Counselor and Managing Editor of the newspaper. Earning even one of those roles would be a huge compliment to who you are as a person but all of them? I really can’t put into words what this means. Because you are in the midst of it, I think it is hard for you to understand what it means to have earned each of those responsibilities. All this means that the people in your life believe in you. They trust you to get the hard work done and they know that people respect you. That’s pretty much the goal of life right there. 

Then there are the friendships you have formed over the past few years. You have more friends than anyone I know but more important than the number of people who like to be with you are the people themselves. You connect with all different sorts of people and the richness that your friends bring to your life makes me so happy. I think making friends and being friendly comes so naturally to you that you don’t really appreciate what a big deal this really is. You are so lucky to be loved so well. 

And then there is the sister and the daughter that you are. You made a lot of jokes during quarantine about wishing you could have chosen a different group to be stuck with but I know you loved being with us as much as we loved being with you. When you are home (even stuck at home for months!) our house is full of joy and kindness and lots and lots of talking. I feel so lucky that you love Katherine the way you do. Watching your relationship grow is one of the things that makes me the happiest about being a mom. 

I am so proud to call you my daughter. I love you and I can’t wait to see what next year holds for you. 

Happy Birthday sweet girl!