Thank you.

An open letter to Ellen DeGeneres in a world that can be so cruel

Ellen,

Thank you. Can I even say this enough? Thank you from the very bottom, top, and every inch of my heart. Thank you so much for being that light this world truly needs.

How hard is it to be a human these days?

SO hard. It is so incredibly difficult to wake up and take on a day that we can expect to be filled with insecurity, heartbreak, disappointment, and a lot of other mixtures of bad taste. From the very moment you entered the world it changed for the better. Does this make me sound creepy? Probably. I'm just an average 23 year old student who thinks you're the bomb.com and I feel as though the world needs to understand your significance but more importantly, you need to understand your significance.

I've been very lucky in my life. I'm surrounded by people who love me, I have had opportunities with furthering my education, and I've not been told "you can't do this" a lot in my life. I'm privileged in a sense because my life doesn't stray from what the masses term as "traditional". You ignite a change in people to want to stray from traditional and I am certain this is your gift. You were created in such a delicate, careful manner because your existence was going to be used for pure good in this world.

Pure good is needed in a world that can be so cruel. Your 60 minutes of laughter, dancing, and loving makes up for the other 1,380 minutes in the day that the media attempts to fill with controversy, shame, and discrimination.

There is a system in place now that you are working to make better: to make more accepting and more loving. It can be scary for me to think of a system changing that, in this moment, works well for me. You help me understand to look past the "me" part. What is the purpose of it working for me or my neighbor like me if it doesn't also work for the nice cashier who bags my groceries on Monday mornings?

Thank you for being someone I am excited to look up to and who I cannot wait to tell to my future children about; how you changed my world and a lot of others without even knowing us personally. Thank you for making me giggle in times where laughing is the last thing on my mind. Thank you for opening up my heart to people who don't hold the same traditions I do yet all still love the same. Thank you for giving me reason to stand up for my values and for giving me a voice I had a difficult time finding myself. Thank you for being the main topic on many of my 1st dates because then the person across from me can actually see who I am in raw form. Thank you for believing in people and their resiliency. Thank you for living your truth.

You are a ray, a specific ray that shines light in some of the darkest places. You are told on a daily basis how much you are loved by fans and I know I will just be another in the crowd. I am alright with that. The act of writing (typing) these words is enough for me. I'm safe in the knowledge that this world will only continue to grow in a more beautiful way because of people like you. People like you who love others so much that they use the platform they are given to shower love into a world that needs it so much.

Ellen, from myself and my beating heart I thank you sincerely. Thank you for being something so good in a world that can sometimes seem so bad.

Love,
Brianna Gorman (Your 100+ claimed biggest fan alive)