Gratitude Series: A Brief Letter to Bev

For the month of November, I am sharing one gratitude letter each week. As the preface to this series mentioned, writing has been my saving grace lately, is getting me through the tumult, the uncertainty, the frustration and fear of these times. I thought about cancelling the series to write directly in response to the events of a tight election unfolding in the United States and of how this makes me feel. But those words are too painful right now. I need words that are soothing. So, I’m publishing the series as planned because it brings comfort to my soul.

The letters trace a specific time period, the Spring of 1999 through the following Winter, 2000.

The letters trace a specific time period, the Spring of 1999 through the following Winter, 2000. So, it begins, Spring 1999.

To my undergraduate academic advisor,

I begin with two underutilized words: THANK YOU. In the Spring of 1999, I entered your office, nervous but committed to pleading my case, which was that I had to break a school rule. You didn’t argue. Instead, you aided and abetted me, and you did it with a smile and conviction.