Stop for just a second and take a moment to think of someone extremely important to you. Someone that is always there for you, inspires you to be your best self and has all of your best interests at heart. Odds are you had someone come to your mind right away. Well, for me, the person that I always think of is my mom.
Ever since I was a little girl, my mom has always been my inspiration. Growing up, I wanted to be exactly like her. I can think of many, many occasions where she would do something and I just had to do it too. There was the time that she was going back to school to get her nursing degree and we’d do homework together at the kitchen table. My little kid version of “homework” was a coloring book or a chapter book from the library. When I was five and my younger siblings were first born, she would carry them around the house with me right behind her carrying my own baby (don’t worry, it was just a stuffed animal). Another time I can remember is my first introduction to coffee. She always wakes up and looks out the window before work, drinking coffee and just thinking about the day ahead. For some reason my third grade self chose to wake up at 6:30 a.m. too, just to sit next to her and drink my own cup of coffee. Now that I think about it though, I’m pretty sure she was giving me decaf that whole time.
She’s the one that would tell me to go for a run when I was stressed or not always be so hard on myself for doing bad on one test. She made sure I always ate my fruits and veggies but would be the first to encourage me to eat ice cream and treat myself. Every soccer game I had, she would be there cheering me on, even if it was pouring rain or the temperature had dropped below twenty degrees, which is common in Wisconsin. She’s the one that’s always there for everyone and gives the best advice on any situation you can think of. Now that I’m growing up into an “adult,” or whatever that’s supposed to mean, I can see myself trying to be like her even now. When I’m in a difficult situation, I always think about what she would do if faced with the same problem. When I get anxious about something or have even the slightest inconvenience, she’s the first person I text to get her opinion. She’s always there for me and when I think back on my childhood, I realize that she’s the one who provided me with that overall sense of comfort. She always had my back even when I felt like nobody did.
I guess, when I think about it, my mom is more than just my mom. She’s someone that I can look up to, someone that I know I can call whenever I need help and someone who is selfless and puts so many other people’s needs before her own. I admire her so much and although I didn’t always realize this when I was younger, she’s the reason that I am the person that I am today. Trust me, we get into our fair share of fights, which usually seems to happen because I’ve inherited her slightly bossy, type-A personality (Mom if you’re reading this don’t yell at me for that one), but in the end I know that no matter what happens, she’s the person who will always be there for me at the end of the day. Overall, I really couldn’t have asked for a better best friend.