Hillary Clinton says she will always be a New Yorker.

Dear Friend,

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for the honor of serving you in the United States Senate and to share with you some of the work and accomplishments of which we can all be proud.

As I look back on eight years of service in the Senate, I am gratified by all we’ve been able to achieve together at what has been a very difficult time for our state and country. We’ve worked hard to find common ground and deliver creative solutions, often against tough obstacles and even tougher odds.

Serving the people of New York has been the opportunity of a lifetime to continue what has been the work of my life. It is been an honor and a privilege to be your advocate and to make real strides for those who have for too long felt as if they were invisible.

I may not have always been a New Yorker, but know that I will always be one. New York, its spirit and its people, will always be part of me and part of the work I do. And so I want to express to you my profound appreciation and my enduring optimism thatthe best days for our state and our nation are still ahead.

Sincerely yours,

Hillary Rodham Clinton

PHOTO: Then-presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton conducts a roundtable discussion at the Yale Child Study Center in New Haven, Conn., in February 2008. Clinton volunteered at the center while she was a law student at Yale in the 1970’s. (AP Photo/ Fred Beckham)