I want to thank you
for sitting next to me
At my first day
In my first class.
How you and Chelsey
Opened your heart for me
With a huge smile and a welcome hello without even knowing
Which kind of a stranger I am.

I want to thank you
For inviting me
After only two months of knowing each other
To your seventeenth sitting-at-a-bonfire-and-eating-smores-after-playing-volleyball-in-the–wet-grass-birthday party.

I want to thank you
For fulfilling my high expectations of cutting my hair
In a perfect smooth way by using the old looking scissors of your crowded room.
For the Ramen noodle soup, just cooked for me.
Sitting on the table right next to the window
With the closed blinds
To protect my eyes of the bright sunlight
of a late afternoon.

I want to thank you
For your happy smile every morning
And your concerned “Honey, are you okay?”
Every time you notice that I am in a bad mood.

I want to thank you
For opening up your family to adopt me into your kin.
How there were no questions about how I am,
What kind of problems,
and craziness I might bring into your already busy family,
And how you accept my declination without any huffiness.

I want to thank you
For giving me the opportunity to sit right next to you
In the small and crowded dressing room of New Oreans’s old Grand Opera house,
Just watching how you are doing the other girls hair
And how patient you stay with every type of person in your life;
Realizing what a great friend I have.

And once more, THANK YOU.