My mom is the one of the most amazing humans I know (I mean
she is planning a family service activity for her birthday, come on people).
Not in the “she’s like totally my best friend and does everything with me” type
of way that a lot of girls talk about. I mean in the truest sense, she is amazing.
Like, let’s say in my last job interview, I started talking about her and
started crying. Yes, crying. In an interview. Tears. SOBBING and finally
choking out the words “she’s the best”.
I don’t know where to start. I don’t know where to end. And
if I’m being truthful, I’ve been trying to write this post for the past two
years, but nothing does my mom justice, nothing, but here goes nothing.
She gave up so much for me and my sister to have what we
have today, to be where we are today. She was a single mom with two kids, still
going to school to get her Bachelor’s degree. She didn’t have much, but she had
a family who loved her and two daughters who needed her. So she found a way to
make it work, and I watched her graduate from the University of Washington when
I was 7 years old. And she continued to work hard and push herself further so
that she could support our small little family of three.
I didn’t know it then, but we weren’t the richest.
I remember eating hamburger helper for dinner (and loving
it). I remember getting everything I wanted for my birthdays, well, except
Barbies because according to momma Reyes those were not acceptable role
models/examples for young girls. I remember laughing my head off while she
wrapped my sister and me in towels like little lumpias (look it up).
We didn’t have much, but we had each other and we had our
family. I don’t look back and remember being poor (I mean, come on, I had all
the Lisa Frank school supplies I wanted AND Crayola crayons), I look back and
see that I had everything I needed and most of what I wanted.
She has conquered so much. She has overcome so much, and I
could not be more proud of the person she is and how far she has come. I can’t
get over how much she continues to strive to grow and become better than who
she was before. How she is always serving those around her and making sure that
others are provided for.
Looking back, it honestly breaks my heart to see some of the
things she sacrificed for us. It breaks my heart to look back at how difficult
and unappreciative I was of her when I was like 14-18 (SORRY MOM). Because she
has done nothing but put me and my sister first our whole lives. Like when she
shut down her catering business because we needed more, even though it was her
passion. Like how she’d make sure we had rides to everything and that she made
it to as many as our games as she could, even if she was a little late.
Looking back, I can see how extremely blessed I was (and
still am) to be her daughter.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I’m becoming more
and more like my mother and that has made me think more about how that makes me
feel. If you asked me 10 years ago, I would’ve been mortified, trust me. But
now, I couldn’t be more proud to be even a smidgen of the woman she is.
And I guess, I’m writing this because I am so overwhelmed
with gratitude for everything that she has done for me and everything she is. For
the example that she has set for me, for showing me that hard work and
dedication can take you to places you never expected. For making time for the
things that mattered.
So here’s to you mom, thanks for being the best. Thanks for
loving me even when I’m a poop. Thanks for putting things in perspective for me
when I’m being overly dramatic and freaking out. Thanks for loving me. Thanks
for going to my 6th grade field trip to the sewage plant and not
being too mad when we went to the Seahawks stadium the next week and you couldn’t
get the time off again to go to that one (oops, my bad!).
Thanks for being you and thanks for making me, me. I love
you more than I ever tell you.
xoxo - Tater
No comments