The other day, my friend and I were walking to our dining hall, and she said, “I know you’re hungry, but geez, why do you walk so fast?” It kind of hit me in a weird way. I did not know how to take it. Then in class, I looked at my notes, and I could barely read the big, swooshy mess. I went in my book bag to get a non-smudging pen only to find a ton of balled up tissue from blowing my nose in class. At this moment I realized that I have become like my mother.

Mom, amazon woman, legs, green bean giant…whatever we have called her as a joke over the years has always been proved by her fast paced walk as everyone with her had to keep a slight jog in order to keep up. That it is my habit now, it is how I walk, and my friends have definitely noticed and said something.

My mother has always had the accountant type of handwriting. The kind you wish they would type instead of write. The bubbly, swooshy, sometimes giant, and usually illegible writing. I looked at my notes and thought I accidentally picked up my mom’s to-do list somehow. I used to make fun of her, but now I am sure she would be pleased to laugh right back at me.

Something else my dad and I used to joke about was her “snot rags.” (I apologize for the vivid imagery). We would go to get a pen from her purse to only find tissues touching our hands that she had blown her nose into. I knew I got her awful allergies, but I did not realize I also got her ability to blow into then stuff the tissues somewhere quickly. I now keep an entire roll of toilet paper in my book bag, so every time I go get a pen or my chap-stick, I am met with tissue. It sounds disgusting, but you would not understand unless you have dealt with allergies like ours. Yes, we throw the tissues away eventually.

Thanks, Mom. Honestly. Although there are things and ways we are very different, there are small things in which we are very similar. The commitment you put into your hard work has always been astonishing and jaw dropping because how in the world does a woman do it. I realized my senior year of high school, it was possible! I followed in your footsteps in that exact way. I also inherited your dance moves. Whenever my roommates and I decide to dance and sing around the room, crazy legs comes out, and I can only do it to the funky music you forced me to listen to in the car. Speaking of the car, you tend to get angry at people who cannot drive very easily. I now understand completely. They are the worst. We also both have a strange love almost an addiction to chicken wings. Last but not least, my best quality. Remember that time you put your shirt over your head, held your arms high in the air, and said something about teepee from Beavis and Butthead? I knew at that moment we were both the weirdest people to probably exist, but I knew we could be the weirdest people together.