“My mother is a walking miracle.” - Leonardo DiCaprio
As a little girl, I never imagined I would call my mom my best friend. I thought it was lame to want to hang out with my mom. When she moved halfway across the country for work, leaving me in the care of guardians, I realized how important she really is to me. When I moved to Missouri for school, I called her about 5 times a week to get advice or to just vent about my problems; I would text her nearly every day and I am surprised she never got annoyed with the pointless texts. Through the years, a few things made me realize that she is actually my best friend.
1. Her beauty is something to admire.
She thinks she is far from beautiful, and yet she tells me that I am gorgeous whenever I send her a cute picture of myself. And I know she does not believe me when I say this but I think she is the most beautiful woman on Earth. She is the most generous, kind, and loving person I know. She taught me how to find the positive in every situation. Her beauty radiates in her determination, ambition, and perseverance. She is motivated to be the best she can be and she does not stop for anyone. Her beauty will never fade.
2. She tells me what I need to hear, not what I want to hear.
She has stood by me through every friendship and relationship I have been through; she is usually the first person I ask for advice. She is the best shoulder to cry on. A few months ago, my best friend of almost two years told me that she had feelings for me and tried to convince me to choose between her or my boyfriend. I hated that my best friend was giving me an ultimatum, but my mom told me how a best friend would never actually do that. She gave me honest advice, without actually saying anything rude about my best friend. Even though I was heartbroken over losing a best friend, she let me know I was not alone. She is the reason I was as strong as I could be. She helped me stand a little taller.
3. We can road trip without getting annoyed with each other.
We may get tired of sitting in a car for hours and hours, but we never actually get tired of each other. When I was going to college, we would road trip from her home in Texas to my campus. There was one time we drove from Missouri to Nebraska to visit my brother for his birthday. We may not have the same taste in music, but we still enjoy singing along to Wicked or Jesus Christ Superstar or that one song by Matt & Kim (even though we are both quite tone deaf). We talk about the romance in our life or about her friends or about my friends. We laugh while reminiscing stupid moments from our past. We are also okay with total silence for a few miles.
4. We can have a girls' night in.
After I graduated from college, I moved in with my mom for a little bit. We both had full-time jobs and she would often go to the gym every night. But sometimes we would just settle in on the couch and watch a good movie or a few of the many shows she has DVR'd. Or we would sit around in our PJs and eat ice cream and scroll through our phones. Or we would talk about our lives after I try to convince her to buy pizza for dinner. We can just relax with each other without any pressure to keep a conversation going.
I definitely do not tell my mom this enough, but she is my best friend. And I have to thank her for all that she has done as my best friend. Thank you for always be closest to me, despite the separate time zones. Thank you for taking care of me in every possible way. Thank you for being there for me when no one else was or wanted to be and when you did not even have to be. Thank you for believing in me when I was too weak and too exhausted to believe in myself. Thank you for pushing me. Thank you for repeating those affirmations that do not mean anything in inspirational films but mean everything when someone who cares about you says them. Thank you for not judging me when I did something really stupid, but also thank you for telling me I was an idiot and probably should not have done the stupid thing. Thank you for being honest with me all the time. Thank you for always knowing who I am and thank you for reminding me when I forget. Thank you for being genuinely concerned about what happens in my life. Thank you for being someone to look up to.
Thank you for loving me unconditionally. You will always be my favorite person.
