Dear Grandma,
You know, for whatever reason, I've thought a lot about this past year. I can tell you it's been the worst year of my life thus far. Even the heartache I felt when I watched a high school relationship crumble when I thought it'd last forever doesn't hold a candle to this year. But I'm as thankful for the lessons I've learned from this year as I am from those I learned back then. The biggest difference is that these lessons have taught me things about myself, monumental things that have made me realize who I am. The Lord works in mysterious ways, and as frusterating as it can be, I'm so very thankful for it. This time, a lot of things I already knew about myself were tested and proven more right than ever. Family is important. More important than anything else I have. I would literally give up everything I have ever gotten, earned, achieved- for family. My SUV certainly won't be there for me when everthing else crumbles, right? And I could certainly survive if someone came and cleaned out my whole entire house, but would be nothing without family. And after a bumpy ride back from the Sturgis trip made every year, I am ever thankful for blessings that sometime go uncounted. There is also nothing I will ever let come between my brother and I. He's my brother and he's the only one I've got - and he's pretty good at it, too. That's not a relanship you can replace, not a position you can fill with someone you meet at work or out on the town. There's no way I would ever let anything, stupid or substantial, come between that. Plus, every girl needs a bodyguard, and he's pretty good at that, too. I've settled on the fact that you've gotta be a good friend - the best friend you know how to be - even though you're always at a risk to get trampled by bad people who don't hold you in the same respect. The past is the past, and I'm still me. And I feel more sure of myself than ever. See your name in the credits, along with a lot of the other people who are reading this letter. I certainly didn't learn it on my own. So I hang on to the people who are good, and I hope they do the same to me.
With that, there are so prayers that I need to send out. Prayers to a broken leg in Sioux Falls. A broken leg that may be one of the biggest blessings yet, for broken legs can be fixed and this broken leg very well could have saved something very precious to me. Prayers to some broken hearts in New Jersey. Broken hearts that may also be blessings, I don't believe these hearts are broken without a plan for something greater and answers to why it happened. Nontheless, it takes time to get to that point...so my prayer is to get them there. And still, prayers to broken hearts across the board...broken hearts for you. I miss you. I miss you so much, and I know I'm not the only one. I sure hope these letters get to you, Grandma. I know you still respond, and I am finally starting to see your response in my life...it's just not the same as the letters that sometimes took me days to read. The handwriting still isn't always clear, it still takes me time to get the response, I just recieve it in a much different way now.

Love you,
Kristen