#200. June 10th, 2013: Mrs. Kwiatt (Larimer) :)

Throughout my life I have been so fortunate to have an amazing family and group of friends, but I’ve also been so lucky to have some truly remarkable teachers. Mrs. Larimer, as I called her since now she is Mrs. Kwiatt, was my kindergarten teacher. That’s right, she was my teacher about 15 years ago. But let’s also not forget that she was also my teacher for 1st grade, as we all decided as a class to follow her to Solana Highlands and continue to be around her wonderful self 🙂 Mrs. Larimer is seriously one of THE most incredible women I have ever met. I remember her being so kind and helpful and she always had the biggest smile on her face. If you want to talk about someone loving her job, it’s her. She was always so dedicated and made everything so much fun. I vividly remember winning a pencil box filled with pens because I answered the question right about points in a bowling game 🙂 I also remember how phenomenal she was to make us do a time capsule in 1st grade that we would open right before we graduated high school. Because of that I also remember opening that crazy thing about 2 years ago 🙂 I remember writing cookies as my favorite snack and that is absolutely still the case. I remember our class bunny and I remember having some incredible friends in that class, many of which I am still friends with today. I loved those classes. I loved being around her as a teacher as she made everyone feel so loved, so welcome, and so special. She was everything a kindergarten/1st grade teacher should be. In fact, I remember in kindergarten I had to leave school early to go on vacation somewhere with my family and I remember so well walking down the ramp to go and she had all the kids wave goodbye to me! Mrs. Larimer was always so compassionate and devoted to helping everyone around her. She made learning fun and she made the first memories of my life so fantastic and happy 🙂 Mrs. Larimer, you are truly such a beautiful human being and I am so thankful to have you in my life and to have had you as my teacher. Thank you so much for having such a contagious laugh and such and great smile. Thank you so much for being the foundation to my school years and thank you so much for showing me so much love and support. Thank you so much for being part of such an incredible school and thank you so much for just being the super woman that you are 🙂 Thank you for our conversation and thank you so much for always making me so happy! Thank you for teaching the way you did and thank you for teaching just in general. You truly had one of the hardest jobs in the world and yet you were truly everything a wonderful teacher should be. Thank you so much for impacting me in the way that you have, and thank you so much for sharing with me your method of a gratitude project 🙂 I am so happy that you have the big and happy family that you always wanted. Mrs. Larimer, you are one of those people who changes so many lives and makes so many people so happy and confident and you deserve to be told that every single day. Thank you for all that you have done and will continue to do. Thank you for everything 🙂

#85. February 15th, 2013: Nathan Miner

I have known Nathan since around 5th grade and I can tell you that I have always appreciated our friendship since we met 🙂 Nathan is one of those quality friends that you have in your life who you can always count on, who you can always have fun with, and who you can always trust. Throughout our lives, I have always been able to talk with Nathan about anything. He’s a fantastic listener and just an overall big supporter of all that you are 🙂 I still remember countless basketball games at Jack’s house or us playing some sort of video game there. I can also remember us playing soccer together wayyyy back 🙂 Nathan is just an absolute wonderful human being and I am so pleased to have him in my life. Growing up, I knew he’d be one of those friends to keep and I knew he would be someone that you can always just call up and catch up with. And that’s exactly what happened this evening 🙂 Nathan, thank you so much for being the genuine, sweet, and smiley guy that you are. Thank you so much for being my friend over the years and for always being so supportive about literally everything I have ever done. Thank you so much for picking me up when I’ve been down and thank you much for being such a great friend to myself and to others. Thank you for having such a fantastic family and thank you for always knowing how to make me smile 🙂 I’m so happy that YOU’RE happy back at SLO and I’m just so thankful we’re friends! For all of that, Nathan, I thank you 🙂