Dear Mom,

Thank you for being brave enough to come to this country with your mother when you were my age. Thank you for risking everything and moving to a new land where you didn't speak the language. You had no guarantee of success or security, just the hope for education and opportunity.

Thanks for instilling the values of hard work and determination in me. If you could learn organic chemistry while simultaneously learning English, I knew I could do it, too.

Thanks for meeting Dad in college and deciding he was the dude you wanted to end up marrying and having kids with.

Thanks for keeping our family put together, organized and functioning.

Thanks for being my role model, not only as a mother but as a woman with a successful career whose patients appreciate your thoroughness, expertise, patience, and care.

Thanks for documenting my childhood. I think we had only disposable cameras most of the time, but that didn't stop you from taking pictures of me doing everything from walking into my first day of kindergarten to sitting on the kitchen floor, playing with cilantro or something when I was two.

Thanks for the hundreds of mornings you woke up before everyone else in the house to get things up and ready, pack our lunches and get us on our way to school.

Thanks for picking out my clothes for as long as I can remember — I think you have better taste than me. It's hard to believe the countless times you would go out the day before my homecomings/dances/banquets/prom and somehow magically find me the perfect dress for the occasion. I can’t tell you how many incidents in my last 21 years of life someone has asked me where I got my outfit, and I’ve just been like, “I’m not sure… my mom bought it for me.”

Thanks for coming to every one of my volleyball games and taekwondo tournaments and swim team meets and performances and presentations.

How does your food taste so good? Thanks for always keeping my tummy happy. I don’t know what kind of secret potion you slip into our food, but I do know you could give Iron Chef Bobby Flay a run for his money.

Thanks for being my chauffeur for most of my life.

Thanks for staying home with me, hugging me and wiping my nose whenever I was sick.

Thank you for showing me what your personal faith means and your choice to have a relationship with God for yourself versus for others.

Thanks for somehow putting together a feast of food and snacks and desserts whenever my friends came over, even when I only asked to order a pizza. Thanks for always offering me food first and insisting on sharing whatever you ordered at the restaurant. Thanks for teaching me generosity.

Thank you for teaching me selflessness. You know when you’re in an airplane and the flight attendants are going through the emergency plan, they say, "Help yourself before helping small children put on their oxygen masks"? Yeah, I know you wouldn’t do that. You would make sure we were safe before even helping yourself. I’m not saying this is the correct or even safest way to go about things, but it is this self-sacrificing care that has influenced me throughout my life.

Thanks for teaching me to be kind and gentle and loving, but also to never let anyone mistreat or take advantage of you.

I'm not sure how, but I'm convinced you can read my mind. Thanks for instinctively always knowing when something's hurt me, when I'm stressed, when I'm happy, or when I've reached another milestone in life. Thanks for being so cognizant and aware of my emotions and teaching me empathy.

Thanks for instilling in me a love for family and an appreciation for people.

Thanks for teaching me what real love is. How to act toward those I care about. For teaching me how to find fulfillment and happiness in giving, generosity and caring for others. Thank you for teaching me this and so much more. I hope I can be as great as you someday.