My mom is my best friend. I know a lot of people say that, and I’m sure they love their mom very much, but my mom is my absolute best friend in the whole wide world. She’s the person I want to hang out with on Friday nights. She’s the person I send funny pictures to. My mom is my person.

I didn’t realize that I had “The Cool Mom” until I was in high school. Don’t get me wrong, I knew she was the best, but I didn’t realize she was the mom people wished they had.

My mom is funny. She makes perfectly timed, witty comments that make the whole room laugh. She’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met. When I have a question, I don’t go to Google. I call my mom.

She taught me how to train a dog. She taught me how to take care of a horse. She taught me about medicine and hiking and birds. If it’s something I confidently know how to do, it’s from my mom.

It wasn't just "things" she was teaching me. She was also teaching me how to be independent. She was making sure I knew how to take care of myself. She wanted me to be strong and self-assured. These are still lessons she instills on me every day.

I’m not the only one she teaches. The woman is highly sought after. She’ll get calls from everyone we have ever met (and sometimes people we haven’t) to ask her about their prescription. She’s a pharmacist, so this isn’t weird. I mean, it’s kind of weird to get phone calls all the time but it’s also kind of fun.

Above all else, my mom trusted me. She had faith that I was going to make good choices. Even when I didn’t, she supported me and loved me all the same. I never had a curfew, which I thought was weird because most of my friends had curfews. When I asked her about it, she said, “I trust you. You have to learn from your mistakes.”

When I started college almost three years ago, I didn’t go wild. I didn’t have a rebellious stage because I was finally away from my parents. I didn’t feel like I needed to because I never felt suffocated. I was given room to grow up because there was no one breathing down my neck every second of the day.

That’s not to say she didn’t guide me. She always told me what she thought. If I was doing something that would have questionable outcomes, my mom would say something like, “are you sure that’s what you want to do?”

You know what? She has a pretty good streak of being right. She tells it like it is and remains honest and blunt (whether you want to hear it or not). Even with her frank nature, we rarely ever fought. I don’t think we needed to because she wasn’t being a Helicopter Parent.

Now that I’m 21 and struggling to be an adult, I’m so grateful for the part my mom played in raising me. A lot of the time we get compared to the Gilmore Girls, a dynamic duo that is better together.

People ask me where I see myself living after I graduate. Do I want to stay in the city? Do I want to explore somewhere new? Do I want to move back to my hometown?

I don’t really know yet; I’m still working on getting my degree. What I do know is that I’ll be fine as long as I can hang out with my mom. We have TV shows to watch and trips to Target to make.

Thanks for being the president of my fan club, Mom!