To my family for being my glue: 

To Mom:

After all the things you do for Ross and I, it really goes beyond what any other mother could do. So many times, I would think of leaving you alone after you’ve worked all day, but you still find the little bits of time to ask how I am or how my school day was. There is a plethora of requirements in taking care of us, and you really go above and beyond to make sure we feel okay. You work and work and work all day until your head hits the pillow. I love watching movies with you and looking over to see that you are already asleep. You come to nearly every single one of my volleyball games, along with driving me from practice to games to practice again. I never stopped to think about how tired you can be from that. You are truly the backbone of how everything in my life happens, how everything in my life can become successful, and how you’re always there. 

To Dad: 

Thank you for always being the big and tough teddy bear that’s always there to hug me and kiss in the evenings. You have really taught me all of the things that a teenage girl should know and then some. I can’t count how many stupid memes you have sent me, and how many times, I hate to admit, I’ve laughed a bit at them, just knowing you are most likely dying of laughter too. When mom is out of town, you always find the ‘things she would never allow’ to come to real life, and we are always laughing along the way. I always feel supported by the way you listen to me rant about school or get mad about a loss, and you always seem to understand because you don’t make me try to feel fine about it; you try to talk through it and get past the problem. 

To Ross: 

I hope a little brother like you really knows how much I believe in you. I will always root for you and know you can push through any problem that happens. I know that I might always seem in a bad mood, but when you say stupid things at the dinner table, I try to cover up my laughter. I can’t believe that you are already going through the things I went through that felt like yesterday. It feels like you’re still that tiny kid obsessed with sharks deep inside, but now your new goals are to “rage bait” me and win your football games. I always hate it when you yell “shotgun” for the front seat, but I am forever grateful to call you my little brother. 

To all of my extended family:

Even if you have only been a small part of my life for just a few minutes, you have come to my head at some point. Grandma Vicki and Grandpa Van, you live so close yet so far, and when I get to talk to you over the phone or when we visit, it’s always full of love and laughs. Grandma Sharon, you give me so much hope that there are still good people in this world and that you spread so much kindness around. Aunt Amy and Uncle Mark, you guys are so fun, and when I’m told that you will be at an event, I can’t wait for you to show up. Aunt Kara, Uncle Eddie, and Stella. You guys are always moving around, but I love to call you at a random time and talk about my day and hear about all the adventures you have been on. 

Thank you guys for always being there, and I love you guys so much. 

To Ruby for being the best dog: 

A diva. That is what my dad would always call my dog. A diva who would always get her way. Ruby won’t ever not get her way because she is clearly the favorite child, and my favorite too. When I wake up in the morning, and I can feel the warmth of her lying near my legs, I always reach down to pet her, and that starts a perfect day. I always get the same excited welcome when I come home from school every day. Every time I leave for school, I always need to give you a little smooch to start my day right. Thank you for always being there, and you can’t read this, since you only understand what I’m saying when it’s about food, but you should know that you really are my best friend. 

To my volleyball team, I couldn’t have done this without all of you: 

To start, I’d like to thank the entire FHC High School Volleyball Program for making all of this come true. Lily and Gracie, you guys were the perfect captains, and no one else could have taken the spot better. You made practice and games such a fun environment to be in. Sutton and Mia, you guys have the best energy 24 hours a day, even when we have to wake up at 7 a.m. for a tournament. Zetta and Charlotte, you two are like two peas in a pod and are always so positive, even when the rest of us weren’t. Marley, I loved sharing the outside with you, and you are the best person to be around and an amazing person. Emmy, you were out for a bulk of our season, but for the moments I was too, I loved talking to you on the side while doing “homework” and watching the rest of our team suffer. Sofia, Gabi, and Phoebe, you guys are always the ones I can’t wait to see inside and out of practice. You are so funny, and I love watching you guys play. To Adah, Xaidee, and Darby for putting up with the rest of us. You guys are amazing middles, and when we had to go through drills over and over again that targeted you, you worked really hard. You made it all worth it during astounding play-outs during our games. And last, but certainly not least, Coach Claire. You work so hard when you go to work all night long and come home just to get four hours of sleep, and then come to practice to deal with us. I am beyond grateful for how hard you pushed us this season and how much you’ve helped us improve. Thank you so much, and I loved every moment with you, positive or negative. I loved that I was with you guys. So many memories will stick with me through and through. I love you all so much, and I can’t wait to see you all grow and become better every day. All 16 of us for the past four months have felt like a sisterhood. 

To Xaidee for being my sister from another mister: 

Thank you. Thank you for being my sister. My sister from a different country that I thought I’d never meet. To be honest, you popped up out of nowhere. You showed up in my life when I didn’t know I needed you. The little us seven years ago started small talk and didn’t know it yet, but in the future, I would need you like I need the air I breathe every day. When I talk too much and tell you about things that don’t have a single thing to do with you, you sit there, laughing and crying as much as I do, always matching my energy. We talked about the stupidest and deepest things that I could imagine. Though they may have been a bit awkward, I always felt safe to tell you. When someone tells me not to tell anyone, that would never include you, I always felt that you should come as an exception to that. Laughing, giggling, and sharing secrets are the typical things that you could find at a girl’s sleepover. If you times those by ten, then you’ll find us there. There is never a dull conversation; no subject is untouched by our endless chatting. If we ended a talk, then we would always pick it up again the next time. No discussion is left cut off. And that always made me feel heard. I felt heard by the things that others brush off, but you ask for the details and the tiny things. So I love you for listening to me. Food. I think that food has always brought people together, but especially us. I love eating with you. I love not holding back and really ordering what I want and doing trades for candy; sneaking upstairs in the middle of the night to make a bowl of popcorn are some core memories with you. I can’t imagine the position I would be in if you didn’t do the same thing and give me the look out of the corner of your eye to send the silent words that come between us. Baking has also always been a big part of our friendship. We would have baking competitions or send pictures of what we were baking that day, but of course, yours always turned out the best. Sneaking a freshly baked cupcake from you felt like a crime and charity because I was only “making sure it wasn’t poison.” Thank you for always being there and being the one I will always run to. I love you so much, and you’ll always be like a sister to me. 

To Scarlett, the pumpkin carving expert: 

I know that you’ll be the one editing this and the one to look at all the mistakes. Though I don’t think I have ever seen you make a mistake. And I also know this isn’t as long as the one that you made for me, but I hope that all the stuff I crammed in here is what you were hoping for. I can’t believe how far we have come since sixth grade, when we barely knew each other, to now, biking to each other’s houses and being on call for hours at a time. No one has taken the time and energy to be with me like you do. I have started to naturally type in all caps to everyone I know, and forget that they don’t get it. I love that you never hold back when talking to me, and it makes me feel like I can do the same. Hence, the heading, I have fallen in love with the way that you go all in for everything. You spend so much time doing things, like your amazing, perfect pumpkins, that you never really find any time for yourself. Catch a break, girly. I have loved the past few months with you in WFP, and you are one of the best writers I have personally met. Eighth-grade volleyball was most definitely a fun one. There was always our little group to come together if we were ever playing together. I have always felt so much support from you, but especially when running lines. It always felt like a breeze because we were laughing so much. Leading to our first year of high school (oh good Lord), it has been so fun when we hang out on weekends, go to football games, hang out in Ada, or literally just run into each other in the hall for a quick conversation. Just so you know, I will always be there for you, just as you have always been there for me. 

To Link for being my safe place:

First off, this is never going to be long enough; I could never run out of things to say. There are so many little things that you do for me that you don’t know affect me so much. Your little “I’m sorry” to fill in the conversation makes zero sense, and you have nothing to be sorry for. You are always open to trying new things and supporting me even when it could be the most boring thing for you. You’ll sit with me and listen to me yap, yap, and yap, and then yap some more. I can’t think of anything else to describe it, but your weird obsession with superheroes is… to say the least, kind of a new point of view for me. Hearing you talk about your shows or action figures is adorable, and I’ve been really behind on my Invincible, sorry. To be fair, you haven’t been watching the things I want you to watch, and yes, I can tell. But besides that, I have lists upon lists of recommendations you’ve given me, and I can’t wait to watch them with you. You can always tell when something is wrong with me, and, somehow, you seem to take whatever it is away, even if it is the stupidest thing to be upset about. There are so many times I would be upset about it, and the second I text you or see you, I feel like I need to talk to you about it. Since you always listen, nod your head, add little comments, or even just be there, and that works for me. Not only are you my boyfriend, but also like a best friend. There’s nothing I’m uncomfortable with telling you about, nothing that I can’t think of to talk about with you. You have brought me so much more to my life. Clash Royale, ice skating, Invincible, hockey games, homecoming, corn mazes, Chick-fil-A, and really stupidly funny jokes. You being the one to bring these things to me could not have been more perfect. You always lighten my mood when you walk into the room. Thank you for being there. Thank you for being yourself. Thank you for saturating me with Billy La Bufanda. Thank you for always letting me have some of your energy drinks in the morning. Thank you for introducing me to so many new things. I love you and your mini Christmas nutcracker. 

To Gobsmacklings: 

To Jolie for always bringing the energy: 

I can’t fit all of the stories that I have had with you on this page, so I’ll start with one of the best. English class in eighth grade. I have no idea why our teacher put us together, and I bet she regretted it. Not enough air was in the room for us to breathe in after laughing so much, not enough times Mrs. R could yell at us to stop talking. Photography, I don’t think we ever got any work done in that class. I get that you needed help with a project, but not enough for us to be gone from class for the whole hour. Student Council. I have no idea why we joined the student council in the first place because we never had…the best ideas. At least that’s what everyone else thought. Once eighth grade was done, I think we hung out about one hundred times over the summer, in Ada. I thought it would get boring eventually, going to the same place 2-3 times a week to hang out with you, but there was never a dull moment. Or for a moment, we didn’t have some sort of food in our hands. I am forever grateful to have you in my life to bring me Oreo cookies and to add to the dull moments. P.S. SCOOBY-DOO!!

To Emerson for listening to me:

In eighth grade, during the first hour of the day, I would talk. I would talk and talk and talk, and you would listen. It really didn’t matter what we were talking about, but it always just spilled out when I was with you. With our own little table and our own little opinions, we laughed so much with the weight of lots of homework on our shoulders, and we would yap. To be honest, not every conversation had a meaning. Not every word we would say would be finished, but it felt like I didn’t need to finish it because you understood it either way. So thank you for letting me yap, and yapping back. 

To Joy for being there when you aren’t there: 

I am so proud that you have decided to take your own route, but I miss you. I miss you day in and day out, and I’m always wondering what we would be doing if you were here. I feel that there are so many things and so many conversations shared, but still, there are so many memories from the years we have been friends that I am grateful to have you for. Please come back, it’s so empty here without you. 

To Ivy for taking care of us: 

You know, it sounds really weird to say this because you’re a really good friend, but you have felt like a mother to me. You have always been the one to make me a cake for my birthday. To help me/let me copy your homework, and the one to keep our friend group together. Always making sure we don’t do anything stupid, and I am very grateful to you for taking care of us. You are always busy now, but I love seeing a friendly face in the hallway to make sure that we are all okay. Thank you for being that responsible one and my, not mother, mother.

To Sophia and Nova: 

When I first entered WFP this year, I was scared it would be a very gated classroom and everyone would know everyone, and that was only half true. Everyone does know everyone, and somehow we have all become friends. But to Sophia and Nova, I am so glad you were the upperclassmen to guide Scarlett and me through the semester. Nova, you are so gorgeous and smart. Your writing is very inspiring and impacting to the people reading it. You’ve taught and helped me so much. I hope that, because you’re a senior, we keep in touch and you do great things after you graduate. Sophia, first of all, I love running to Scarlett’s locker every day to share the rest of her food. I hope you know I will never get over that you have that terrible picture of me somewhere in your phone, and that we made a Mr. George fan page. You two have made me a better person this year, and I can not wait to see how the rest of the year goes. Thank you for being so open and supportive of me. 

To everyone who thought they wouldn’t make it in here: 

First of all, I’m sorry that I couldn’t fit you into the rest of the paragraphs. I hope you find these little notes to be sentimental. Olive & Rheagan, I love how small our lunch table is and how many precious conversations we have. I still don’t understand a thing about crew, but I’m glad I can hear it from you guys. Adeline & Olivia, Thank you for making me laugh in the most boring class of my life. And Addie, thank you for that amazing breakfast sandwich. I will pay you back. Mia, thank you for not making me look like a loser on the bus. You are the perfect person to sit with at seven in the morning. Gabe, so far, I have not heard much from you after switching schools. But, you’re still my neighbor and the one to binge Stranger Things with me. Carolina, eighth-grade science was not easy, but I loved that we failed together. Yasin, I will always keep every single one of the so-called “elephants” you draw, and I hope to collect many more. And, thank you for getting me through seventh-grade science. Owen, thank you for being my not-so-little, little cousin. Keeping in touch will never be a mistake. Thank you for being the one other person to watch The Walking Dead with me. Zinzi, you are my best friend’s little sister. I can officially say that you are like a little sister to me, too. Mama Jackie, you are so kind to every single person who walks into your home, making them feel at home. Thank you for welcoming me with open arms. Mrs. Newton (Mama #2), you take so much care of me, making me call you Mama #2. I can never thank you enough for doing so much for me. 

If you have gotten to this point, you are a trooper and one of my biggest fans, clearly. Don’t think too much of what I wrote for you because the short (or long) paragraph that I wrote is just a slice of how much you mean to me.