To all of you: You have shaped me. You have lived in a way that makes me admire you and has made me want to be like you. You have inspired me. You have picked me up when I was unable to stand. You have walked beside me when no one else was or would. You have fought with me and came out the other end all the better for it. You have listened to my endless rants about whatever I was crusading for. You have stayed up late with me(not even going to give a qualifier here). You were a good friend and not afraid to tell me what you thought, or what you thought that I should do better, or shouldn't do and on and on...
You know who you are if you are reading this and to you I miss you more than I can tell you and wish that I could recapture many of those moments with you or at least relive some of them to some capacity.
And to those of you who are in my immediate sphere of influence at the present, stay close until all of this can be said of you.
To the Chicago family: I love you. You have the inside scoop on what has been the hardest years of my life and you are still here beside me(some of you and to those who aren't I mean to call you. call me)
We will be here in this city for as far out as I can see at the moment, so unpack your bags with us and stay awhile. What you see is what you get from us, so this may all sound cheesy, though I don't really care, because I have a hunch that though a lot of you would never say these things out loud you want to be known as well.
Thank you friends.
I look forward to knowing you and to be known by you.
