I don't want to be one of those dumb vain public figures who takes help wherever they can get it and then doesn't thank anyone.  As a proud Hoosier I want to always keep my Midwestern groundedness so I never forget where I came from and who brought me here.

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First on my list is my circle of friends.  As a homeschooler it was always a concern in my parents' minds that I find friends.  I have found friends.  God has blessed me with not one...but five people (besides family) whom I feel I can call best friends.  It is my prayer that they feel the same way about me and that I have never nor will ever let them down.  You know who you are...and you are an incredible gift in my life.  I thank each of you for your "you"-ness.  You and all my other friends I don't know very well yet are blessings.  Each of you has taught me something about myself, about life, about God, and about fun, random, and interesting things I can add to my file cabinet of "Information to be used to win Jeopardy! someday."  Thank you.

Next, my teachers.  My acting teachers Dwandra Lampkin and Jen Blackmer, my voice teacher Dr. Shellie Beeman, my voice tutor Erik (who stays on me to practice! ;) ), Dr. Tyler Smith who filled the majority of my file cabinet of Jeopardy! material in Theater Aesthetics, Theater History, and next spring, Dramaturgy...and David "Kip" Shawger.  He taught me how to use Photoshop (believe me...knowing how to use Photoshop is very useful for spotting baloney pictures) and to build this website.  And of course my parents Lynn and Kip Jackman...but I'm coming to them...

And the Stellar Support System Award goes to......my parents.  Best education ever...being the most hands-on parents in a kid's education...exposing me to all fields of life and work and letting me choose for myself...living at home during college...raising me to be a patriotic American and strong Christian who is not afraid to stand up for what she believes in...and from the very beginning showing me the light and love of our Savior Jesus Christ and how to live that Gospel for others.  The list could go on forever...and I personally could not write out the full list myself.  Coming into my own adulthood while living at home has certainly been a challenge in more ways than one...but I do and forever will thank you, Mom and Dad, for sticking it out with me.

This isn't one of those cheap tagline "I'd like to thank God for bringing me here to this Oscars podium and putting this hunk of gold in my hands..." thing.  I really do thank God.  I thank Him for His omnipotence, His omniscience (which can be a little scary at times but is mostly comforting), and His omnipresence.  There is nowhere on this globe that I can go where He will not already be.  That is most important to me now as I prepare to branch out and leave the nest so to speak and go to New York or England or on a tour with a show maybe...He will be my travel Companion where ever I go and my Safety Net for whatever happens.  When Noah and his family were about to board the ark for a year-and-a-half cruise through storms and destruction, God said to Noah, "Come thou into the ark."  He said, "Come."  For God to have said that, He would have to already have been in the ark.  He was with them in the ark during the storm.  God is waiting for me in my own ark...now all I have to do is board.  He will even navigate for me.  I just have to climb aboard.  I also thank Him for the people (and angels) he has placed in my life to keep me and bear me up.  As strange as this sounds I also thank Him for the trials and pains I've faced.  Besides helping me grow, the biggest thing I've learn and continue to learn is that He is bigger than anything I could ever face.  He is stronger than any enemy who would ever try to harm me.  Hey...if God is for me.......who can be against me??  And most of all I thank Him for my salvation and forgiveness from all my screw-ups.  Because He is the great I Am, I don't even fear eternity.  He's already in that ark too for whenever He calls me aboard.

Sure as heck that isn't everybody who deserves to be thanked.  I hate the whole "blanket thank-you" but it really is impossible to go back in my memory and remember every single person that ever encouraged me, helped me, even gave me a hug or a smile when I needed it.  So...for every kind word or good thought or prayer ever sent my way...thank you.

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.
--Philippians 1:3

With all my love,
Chelsea Jackman