Teachers. They’re some of the most important people in your life. Whether you realize it or not, your teachers are the reason you are the person that you are today. I’m not just talking about your school teachers either, but your life-teachers as well. The people who taught you how to cook, how to fix things, how to have fun, how to live each day to the fullest, and the list goes on and on. Teachers are the people in your life who care and look out for you, they’re the people who are always there when you need someone to turn to or not sure what your next step is going to be, and they always keep you in mind.

In most cases, our very first teachers are our parents, but especially our mothers. In my case, my mom was—and is—literally my teacher. I was homeschooled for my entire primary education from kindergarten all the way until my senior year of high school, at which point I was already cross-registered at a local community college and had earned 30+ college credits. My dad—who is also a teacher—over saw my “lab work” and musical instruction (a fancy way of saying he taught me how to play the guitar), but it was my mom who oversaw the rest of my schooling.

From a practical perspective, my mom taught me how to read, how to write, how to do math (she didn’t teach me how to like it, that’s an impossible thing to do), and how to be studious, but she also taught me a lot of other things that don’t show up on a report card.

My mom taught me how to be self-motivated and self-disciplined. My schoolwork didn’t do itself, and anything that I wanted to get done I had to do myself. She taught me not to put off for tomorrow what I could do today, and not to procrastinate, because the only person’s time I was really wasting was myself, and that would be selling myself short. She also taught me to set high standards for myself and strive to achieve my absolute best. I have never understood the phrase “Cs get degrees” because the very thought of getting a C in a class terrifies me. If I’m getting Cs in my classes, I must be missing something, and I should be trying harder to do my best and utilize all of the resources that I have to help me succeed.

Not everyone gets to have their mother as their teacher as explicitly as I have, but everyone has teachers in their life who are as impactful to them as my mother has been to me. And just like most mothers, your most influential teachers are probably overworked and underpaid, which is why thanking them is so important.

It might be difficult to recognize all of the things you’ve learned from your teachers, because they’ve literally taught you everything so at times it can feel like they’ve taught you nothing. We take for granted our passions, personality, and pursuits in life, all of which have been influenced, encouraged, and nurtured by our teachers. Plain and simple, you wouldn’t be the person you are now without your teachers, and especially without your mother.

This Mother’s Day, thank your mother, but thank your other teachers as well. Thank the people who worked hard and fought by your side as you learned how to read and write. Thank the people who patiently taught you how to cook and fix things when you wanted nothing to do with it. And thank all the people who have been quietly looking out for you and shaping you into the person that you are today. You can never be too grateful.