A Million Thanks
By Courtney M. Dunn
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
Major: Chemical Engineering
Email address: cdunn@howard.edu
  
      I wish I could have told you this a long time ago, but I have never been able to readily verbalize my feelings. You have played such an influential role in my life. Whenever I was on the brink of trouble, you were there. Whenever I was in harm’s way, you protected me. Sure, I said “thank you”, but was that enough? Was “thank you” enough for the woman who helped my mother nurse me back to health after pneumonia and chicken pox? Was “thank you” enough for the woman who, not having borne any children, loved us enough to call my mother her “adopted” daughter? “Thank you” could not have been enough for the woman who taught me to appreciate all people of all races and who exposed me to many different cultures. Anyone who gains pleasure from doing anything and everything they can, to make sure that I have all that I need and all that I want, deserves so much more than a simple “thank you”.
I hope that I showed you how much I love and appreciate you through my words and my actions. I hope that I have and will continue to live out the aspirations that you had for me. Disapproval or disappointment from you would certainly lead to my failure. I am sorry that it took me so long to express these feeling to you, but it is better late than never, right? You are gone now, but I know that you are watching over me and leading me along the right path. I hope that I have made you proud. Even though you were not physically present for my high school graduation or my 18th birthday, I know that you were smiling down at me and you were satisfied with my accomplishments. I wish I could have made you aware of these feelings before I lost you, but I have a strange feeling that you knew the entire time. I more than thank you and I more than love you!!!

© 2001 Courtney M. Dunn