Dear Life,

It isn't uncommon for me to find myself at least three times a week looking back at old pictures and reminiscing on the experiences I've had. Just 10 minutes ago I was looking at pictures from 2010. These past few days I've been doing a lot of reminiscing, and it's got me to thinking, what has gotten me to where I am today? What are the events in my life that fully impacted who I am today? I think that recently I have realized that I don't yet know what my passion in life is. But I do however know that I want to help others. As I have thought recently about how I will be able to help others, I realized that I really need to step back and recognize what has helped me arrive to where I am in life. So I write this post "Dear Life," as I sit back and fully recognize why I am where I am in life and accept the life that I am living.
I'm sitting here racking my brain on the life events that led me to where I am right now and I'm drawing a blank. But by a blank I mean, I think of these events that don't seem like too many events, but I think  the amount of them holds the true fact that these are indeed the events that shaped my life. There aren't many events in the early years of my life, but I think that's for the better. I contemplated laying out my lifeline but I've realized as I try to write it out that no one but me and those individuals involved at those specific times will ever understand the impact that the events had on my life. This past weekend I started to tell some one my "life story" and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. I realize that the life story that I told her, is not what I wanted to tell her. There is so much that has impacted my life and thinking about the things I said during that short period of time, those are not what I want to be known by, what I told her was probably about 10% of my life story and part of me wants to run back screaming to finish my story. I don't expect anyone but myself to fully understand where I am in life, and what led me here, but as I move forward in life I challenge myself to recognize these life changing events as they happen. I in turn, challenge you, whoever you may be reading this, to look back and realize what has gotten you to where you are today.
I leave you with one note on my life. The one note that seemed to be the most devastating and influential one of my life. I lost my father when I was three to cancer. My family changed that day. We lost the man who brought us together. We lost the man who would always be there for us. We lost the man who loved us unconditionally. We lost the man who vowed to be with his family through thick and thin. And 17 years later, I can say while we lost a man that day, we gained a guardian that day as well. Just about every event in my life was shaped around this day. I am in college now because of him, I fight for who I am because of him, and I sure as hell push through everyday of life because of him. Because I know that I may never know when life will be taken from me. Sometimes I worry that I too, like him, will have a life that will be cut short. I live everyday and every second of everyday with the intentions of doing good. I want to be able to look back on life and say that is me, I lived life for Kylie and the Kylie that I built through all my experiences is one that I am proud of. So Dear Life, I face you head on. I look back at everything you have given me thus far, and I look into the future to everything that is waiting for me and I am prepared. And mostly importantly, I recognize my purpose and how I got here. Dear Life, I accept you.

"Because someone we love is in heaven, there's a little bit of heaven in our home."