Life is something that I have always believed to be a river that constantly flows, never stops or slows. It has those straight, normal, and peaceful times, but it has rough times with twists and turns. I think everyone knows this, but some people have worse experiences than others. Those experiences cannot be avoided and have to be faced. Everyone always faces those experiences differently as they come. The ones that face the experiences with the bright hearts and their heads held high are those that inspire me every single day to keep going.

My mother has held her head high every day while facing her daily experiences and still continues to hold her head up high and inspire me every day.

My mom started working a full-time job while still in school at the age of 14. I know very few people who have done that, but my mother continued on to work two jobs during her junior and senior year of high school. She did this to bring money into her not so well off home. My mom always stuck by her mother, even once her father left, and her brother was not so nice to her. My mom kept going no matter what, and I admire her for that.

My mom did graduate high school, but she never went to college. Instead, she kept working her jobs to help provide for her mother and brother. My mother never gave up.

Eventually, everything got better on the night of December 26th, 1993. My mom was still by her mother’s side, but she met my dad. That was the start of the light that my mother deserved.

She got married to my dad on May 26th, 1995. She didn’t have me,(her first child) until October 20th, 1999, about five years later. My mom and dad thought they would never be able to have kids, but here I am now. I am one of three children in my family.

With raising three kids and having a part-time job as a marketing analyst, she had a lot on her plate, yet she always made it all work. Running between three different schedules of three different kids with all different sets of friends and interests must not be an easy task. Especially at one point when two of those kids were in diapers at the same time! I saw how difficult that was, I saw my mom work really hard to make everything work within our house. Yes, it wasn’t perfect, but she always kept her head up and kept going.

That is truly something that has always inspired me, and one thing that has always made me want to always keep moving forward in my life. My mom keeping her head up showed me that I could keep my head up too, every single day.

My mom is such a huge inspiration for my entire life. She inspires me every day to keep smiling, keep being positive, and always keep going, no matter what happens, just as she did when she was raising me.

She was always there with encouragement whenever I felt I could not do anything. When I felt stuck, my mom was there for me to guide me the right direction. That was mainly through the times of my bullying where people made me not feel good. My mom built up my strength. She helped me to be able to get back up on my feet again and soon I was doing it on my own (though I still had her help on the really bad times).

I kept my head high, even in the face of doubt, because of her.

My mom is also one of my best friends, even when she says that she is my mom and not my friend. There are a lot of times where we get along like we are really great friends, we laugh and joke about things that we have done in the past. It is always so great to laugh and smile with my mom. She loves me and I love her!

Even though I am not around you as much anymore because of college, I always love you, mommy! You are the best mom, I have been blessed. Yes, you are a blessing to me mom, I would not change you for anything! Thank you for being always being you, never change mommy! You are always beautiful, inspirational, kind, generous, strong, and just the overall best! I always appreciate you every day of my life. I always miss you while I am at school, but I am always thinking of you along with my daddy and siblings. I love you so much mommy and please, never change!