I recently looked at my phone's call log and was shocked to find that my last ten incoming and outgoing phone calls were to my mom. The first week of classes, I mentioned to a classmate that I called my mom at least twice a day every day and I instantly became that girl. The one who is best friends with her mother and tells her about every second of her day. I was shocked to find out that most of the people around me talked to their parents once a week, maybe once a month if they remembered to call. At first, I considered it a cultural thing. Colombian mothers seem to always be on the brink of a breakdown focused on how little you love them, all because you forgot to call, decided not to come home one weekend, or got fast food instead of eating the dinner they made. To me, calling my mom every day is not just normal--it's expected.

I know everyone sees college as the ultimate ticket to freedom, which means putting some distance between you and your parents. And college places a big emphasis on learning to become self-sufficient, even for those of us whose parents pay all of our bills while we're here. If you have someone at home who is helping put you through school, a phone call every once in a while would mean the world to them. To my mom, my education is one of the most important things in my life; in fact, it was one of the biggest factors in our move to the United States when I was only six months old. Seeing both me and my sister go to college to pursue our dreams makes the eighteen years she has spent working in the U.S. worth it. I owe everything to my mom, the least of which is a phone call every now and then asking how she's doing.

Separate from our duties as needy and still dependent students, your parents are likely people who have spent your entire life by your side. And despite how much we insist otherwise, they are people who know you incredibly well. Whenever you feel like nobody else possibly understands what you're going through, you just might find that your mom or dad knows the perfect way to calm you down before a big exam or will hear you out when you just need to ugly cry to someone who won't judge you for ugly crying. Or maybe you'll need your mom's tricks for getting over the inevitable first cold of the season. The truth is, my mom knows me so well that she can tell exactly how I'm feeling from just hearing my voice, and it is so nice to not have to explain to her how I feel. She always knows.

So, yeah, maybe I do call my mom way too often. And maybe that comes from being raised by a single mom who was more or less my best friend. But I love being the girl whose mom doesn't spend her days wondering whether her daughter is passing classes or eating well or staying out of trouble. I'm far from being the golden child (thanks to my sister setting the bar impossibly high), but I know that my mom is comforted by the knowledge that I think about her at least twice a day, even when I'm so far from home. My phone calls show my mom that I appreciate everything she does for me and that, even in the whirlwind of college, I can spare a few minutes each day to tell her how much I love her.