An Open Letter To All The Women In My Life

This post was inspired by the Golden Globes, an event I look forward to watching every year.  This year, the Golden Globes held a far different tone than I was used to.  It focused on a powerful message about women empowerment.  About how we shouldn’t settle for pay inequality, sexual harassment, and sexual assault.   It focused on women supporting other women.  A message that is long overdue, but welcome.  Inspired by this theme, I’d like to share messages to women who have made an impact on my life.

My Mom

Thank you for teaching me how to be a decent person.  How to bathe regularly, comb my hair, and wear clean clothes.  How to do the best at everything I do, whether a garbage collector or CEO.  Thank you for loving me unconditionally and supporting me in my mistakes, failures, and successes.  Thank you for showing me what it means to be a mom.  For encouraging me to create my own path.  For allowing me to make my own choices and being there for me when they didn’t work out.  Thank you for always answering my calls, never judging, and always being someone I can count on to love me unconditionally.

My Sister

First off, thank you for trusting me with the responsibility to be your maid of honor even when I think my ideas are better than yours.  Thank you for being my older sister.  For never judging me (to my face) when I messed up.  For always offering insight on how I could be doing a little better but, at the same time, appreciating that I am who I am.  Thank you for being patient with me as I grew and matured.  Thank you for being someone I can look up to and admire.  For being someone who sees what they want and goes for it.  For being a woman who won’t take no for an answer and creates the life she wants.  Thank you for being my inspiration and for being the sister I need in order to become who I’m going to be.  And thank you for getting married in Cabo so I get to take a really great vacation.

Ellyse, Rachel & Kati

When I think about a time when I grew a lot as a person, I think of my time abroad.  I was coming off a tough semester at college and embarking on a journey that was *literally* foreign to me.  I am so thankful that I found three other girls who were in the same position as me.  We traveled to foreign places together, experienced new things together, and had only each other to lean on when we got homesick for America.  I am so thankful that I had these three to lean on when I studied abroad and so happy to look back on our memories together and think fondly of our time together.

SHS betches

This title sounds aggressive but it’s the only term I can use to describe them.  I can’t remember when the term “SHS” started but it was probably senior year of high school.  I know a lot of people drift away from their high school friends, but I’m happy to say these ones are still a part of my life.  I am so thankful to have people in my life that know where I came from and who I have become.  Having people in your life that knew you when you were in 6th, 7th, 8th grade is rare.  I feel very lucky that we’re still able to get together and it’s as if nothing changed.

Kristen

Kristen and I lived together for 3 years.  We shared a room for 2.  I don’t know how we made it through, but we did.  Junior year our room was so small our beds literally touched.  There’s a lot of stories to share from the time we lived together, but that’s for another day.  I am so thankful to have met and become friends with Kristen because our friendship is one that stuck.  We met from an unlikely source,  but I’m so glad we did.  She is the person I can tell anything to without judgment, and that’s hard to find these days.  I could go on for days and days sharing stories, but in an effort to keep this a short post, I’ll stop here.  Thank you for being you and being my friend through all we’ve been through.

***Editor’s note: there are many other women who have positively impacted my life and I’m forever grateful to them.