My mother is truly an amazing and beautiful woman for what she has been able to do for both my family and herself. She is an inspiration to many people as she has always stayed strong and tough even during her hardest times. The best thing she has done for my family was the hardest thing she has done for herself: coming from the bottom of South America to the top of United States of America.

Almost thirty years ago, on July 13, 1988, my mother came to the United States of America with only one dollar in her pocket. She was given the opportunity of her life from Ms. Leonor Blume, a retired Notre Dame of Maryland professor. It was difficult for her as she had only one ticket and had to leave her family and three year old son behind. At first, she was considering turning it down, but after she thought long and hard about it, she decided it was best to come to try to give both her and her son a better life.

My mother had a tremendously difficult and worrisome life in Argentina. She had grown up poor with only just her mother to be able to support her. However, her mother was not able to make enough of an income from work to give a sufficient feed for the both of them, so my mother had to get a proper full time job at an insurance company at the early age of just 14 years old. Making it extra hard, she became a teenage mother at 19 years old. Nevertheless, she was still a very happy woman and always counted her blessings.

The opportunity to come the U.S. was a miracle, but bittersweet. Once she arrived to America, Ms. Blume gave her a gift of more than money for her arrival. My mother was frightened to go on the plane from New York to Baltimore on her own, but nonetheless, did so.

While living in Baltimore, she was able to learn basic English while riding the metro bus, watching the Oprah Winfrey show and taking in classes in Pikesville High School. She began to work at more jobs to make more pay for her living and insurance for her mother and son. While working on her career as a house cleaner, she began to meet amazing people, such as my father.

When she was dating my father, she had gotten to know both of his kids - Ashley and Stevie. She felt very concerned for them, as Ashley had Cystic Fibrosis. She had loved the kids such as her own and after a few years, became their stepmother.

When welcoming their first child, my mother excitedly did everything she could to make sure that her child was healthy. However, it wasn't enough and her second child was born needing an open heart surgery.

It was hard for her because the doctors told her that her baby had a slim chance to survive and needed to be sent to NECU and PICU from Sinai Hospital to John Hopkins Hospital. To make the matters worse, a priest came in and wanted to baptize Ricky without her. She was praying to God that she wouldn't lose him and luckily she didn't.

After a few years, when he and I had reached middle school age, my mother overcame many obstacles to be able to send both my brother and I to both Catholic middle and high schools. Now that my brother and I have both graduated, it was time for the next step: college.

I chose to go Notre Dame of Maryland University to be able to make my mother proud as she was never able to go to college herself. I also chose Notre Dame of Maryland so that I too could give back to Ms. Blume in my own special way.

Ms. Blume is a wonderful woman for what she was able to do for my mother and countless other women. She has always been so helpful to the Latin community. She even has an organization that she started to help people like my mother. I will always be thankful for what she did for my mother. My mother will always strive to make her feel proud and that she didn't ruin her opportunity and just like Hamilton, she did not throw away her shot.