Wed was my last class. We stayed an hour late, till 11pm, to say goodbye. We all sat in a circle and bawled and giggled and hugged. It was really sweet.

I love those guys. I am so thankful for our awesome, awesome teachers, Nate and Rebecca, and terrific teachers aides, Rita and Chad. I will never forget them, indeed, their wise counsel and good humor will be ringing in my ears for many years of massaging to come.

My classmates... Amazing people. I feel very lucky to have shared this challenging and precious year of learning with them. I hope that many of them will stay in my life and our friendships will continue to grow.

May our paths be prosperous and joyous, and may our hands spread the healing and balancing power of massage far across the world.

Love and thanks to all who helped me through this year. To Jessica, Kara, Larisa, Gwen and all my classmates who gave me so many rides back and forth to school. To Keridwyn, Levi and Mandy and all the people who kept me sane with hugs, karaoke parties and just genuine love and caring.

Thanks to Brenneke, Heida and all her very supportive, sweet staff members. Such a great environment to learn in!

To my mom for her very great love, for being an endless stream of emotional support and general support, for babysitting and guidance, for nurturing me and helping me learn and for cheerleading(all the peptalks on the phone late at night when I felt at the end of my rope)when things got bad.

For my sweet son, Sam, who had to sacrifice so many monday nights with his momma-Hurray for mondays at home now! And thanks for Ben(another endlessly giving source of rides and support)and Rowan(sweet, sweet pateint girl that she is).

Oh and to all the folks who gave their bodies to my learning hands for massages, thank you. I hope you loved every minute of it. It sure helped me tons.

Last, but surely not least, my heartfelt thanks go to Daniel, my dear fiance, for being there for me for a whole year of babysitting and driving me to school and patience and excellent massage advice and companionship and... Everything.

There, now I feel like valedictorian.