Last Wednesday, SLO Classical Academy hosted our Legacy Breakfast. There were several amazing speakers who shared their hearts with attendees. One of the speakers was Audrey Raj, one of our high school students in her 6th year at SLOCA. She wrote (and read) this letter to her parents and it is with her permission that we share it today.
Dear Mom and Dad,
I am writing this letter to you to say Thank You. There are a whole bunch of people listening in as I read this to you, but don’t mind them. I am thankful for many things. I thank you for giving me life, home and love. Thank you for making every effort to grow me into who I will be. I am very grateful for the gifts you have given me. One of these gifts I am especially thankful for: My education. I remember when we decided to attend SLOCA. I was 10. At first what drew me was the social aspect. Having been homeschooled since preschool, going to school with other children was a novelty. I distinctly remember the first thing I said to the girl sitting next to me. “Hi, I’m Audrey! I think we’re going to be good friends!”
I remember, and I hope you don’t, how it was a bit a chore then to get me to do my work. I remember complaining about writing and math. I was not a bad student. I was just a somewhat less enthusiastic one. But something strange happened over the first two years I attended the school. I began to love math. Oddly enough, it began to be pure fun to solve an algebraic expression. I began to read extra history in order to discover the amazing gilded secrets of knowledge. I marveled at how lovely, and occasionally read in horror, the beautiful tale of our world, and slowly I began to build a little store of knowledge in my mind. I would take these pieces of information home with me and sit on my swing in the back yard and turn them over in my head and turn them over with you. Year after year I grew, changed, and matured I added more and more to my store of knowledge. It is no longer small, but it is my no means complete. For lo and behold I have become a lover of learning! And have never quite learned enough. I am still friends with many of the people I met my first year here. I still swing in my back yard and I look up at the stars, grinning at the constellations, which have stared down from sky and witnessed all the history I read about. And I know I should be more humble, but I am very proud. I am proud of what you have made me. I am proud of what this school has made me and I am proud of what God has made me. I know you are proud of me too. Thank you for supporting me, teaching me and growing me. Thank you for letting others teach me and grow me as well. And thank you for allowing me to teach and grow myself, so that I will be prepared to become a bright thread in the great woven tapestry of the story of the world.
Your daughter,
Audrey
“There are two things children should get from their parents:
