NEW final draft

Dear life-long friend,

You are more than I could ever illustrate. You are all of my good qualities, and none of the bad. Everything I love about myself comes from you. My eyes, my ability to smile and laugh at myself. My perseverance and ability to tell myself “It’ll all turn out in the end.” Without you I wouldn’t be on this earth, or nearly half the being I am today. The words mother, mommy, and mom are an understatement for the person you are. Maybe super-hero would suit you better. You somehow balance two jobs at a time. You work 5 days a week, and you are a fulltime parent. You made me a strong, confident and respectable woman. You have set me on a path that success is the only answer.
Words can’t illustrate how much you’ve helped me through life. You carried my seven-pound body around with you for 9 weeks, before I finally decided to enter this realm, via emergency C-section. It was from that point on that you took me under your wing and taught me the ways of life. You went above and beyond the expectations of a mother. You never spoiled me, but let me make decisions early on in life. You helped me cope with the hefty amounts of stress I encountered from a juvenile age. You taught me to deal with my problems in a mature manner, instead of throwing a hissy fit or just looking the other way. For instance, the time I got in a fight with a girl in the lunch line. Rachel and her friends had skipped me and my best friend Madison right as we were approaching the small personal pizza boxes. Even though it wasn’t a big deal, we didn’t like it. The yelling started and progressed into me getting pushed into Madison. Thankfully none of the faculty saw this, but none the less I had to explain it to you. Once you heard the full story you gave me the best advice id ever heard. You told me to confront Rachel and her friends at lunch the next day and tell them what they did was wrong, and how it made me feel. Being the hard-headed arrogant little girl I was I refused to take her guidance and tried to skip them in line the next day. Things went bad again, and Rachel and I hated each other. Finally a week later I sucked it up and confronted Rachel about my feelings towards her. We ended up working our problems out and were friends for the remainder of middle school. If I had only taken your advice from the beginning I could have skipped the ugly words being thrown around and the hatred we shared for each other.
In 6th grade I went to a middle school where I didn’t fit in. You gave me a kindergarten quote, that I have carried though life till this day. You told me "sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me", and although it sounds cheesy, this quote made perfect sense to me. It helped me to block out the mean things people said, and turn them into positive vibes.
In 7th grade we moved. 3944 San Bernardo was my home, it was where I belonged. I was terrified to leave the only habitat I knew. I would never climb the big red cedar tree outside my window again or walk down to the local park, Tomahawk. All of my friends lived there, and I didn’t want to make new ones. You helped me turn the gloomy negative image in my head into a bright positive one. We went from a two bedroom house to a four bedroom two story house, instead of living off a little side street we lived in a real neighborhood with a board of directors. You taught me to accept life as it comes, and live day by day. I wanted to sit in my room and cry, and dwell upon how much I missed everything back “home.” I learned to accept the changes as they were coming, because everything happens for a reason. Without your helpful words id still be sitting in my room crying.
Things started getting harsh as I was hitting my teen years. You helped me cope with the stress my father gave me, and made everything a learning experience. If I didn’t learn from any given situation, I wasn’t paying attention. I take every word you say to heart, as if it was worth a million dollars. When i was down on myself with nowhere to turn, you were always there to help me. You never gave me the keys to success or the answers to my algebra problems. Instead you would sit down with me and help me understand better. Remember when I went through that phase in my first year of high school where I would copy my friend’s homework every single day? You would consistently ask me why I never had homework, and I would reputedly say “oh, I finished it at school.” When my test grades started to drop and I didn’t understand the material you knew it was time to talk. I told you everything, from buying the smartest by in my math class lunch so I could copy his homework, to lying about leaving my homework at home. Although you were not happy about this, you sat me down and helped me through it. I finally started to understand why I should do my own homework. Some nights we would sit in my room together and you would help me with my homework. I’d give you random quizzes on the things I was learning, just to try and prove I was smarter.
You helped me when I got in fights with my best friends and you helped me get through the breakup of my first boyfriend. You made me strong by not letting me back down. You taught me to stand up for what i believe in, and not to let anyone change my mind. You gave me words of wisdom to make the right choices. You made me into the woman I am today. I will keep your words close to my heart, and never let them fade.
You have never been just a mother to me; you will always be my lifelong best friend.
Love forever,
Sara Santarelli