First, it was "being too bossy," when I did my best to organize my classmates to help the teacher take roll. Next the nickname "Mama Bear" in high school as I karate chopped the boys harassing my girlfriends, and reprimanded my guy friends for not eating lunch, and promptly packing extra snacks in my lunch in case they forgot again the next day.

Since I've come to college, I've accepted this label with mostly open arms. Learning a bit of discipline has refined what I know consider a gift and a skill��--but as I matured, so did the responsibilities I signed up for. One day was taking a best friends to the OHSU eye clinic on a Saturday for emergency surgery and signing her "parent" paperwork. It hasn't stopped there, although that was the most drastic event to date; on occasion I've quietly reminded bosses to drink water and take lunch breaks.

Similarly to a mother, when advice is poorly received and bad habits run rampant, I tend to get irritated. Initially the response was met with my anger and frustration, with a little bit of taking it too personally mixed into it. I've had to learn the art of speaking truth kindly, and leaving it hanging in the air, instead of glueing it to a spoon and shoving it into others faces. Some days I still reach the end of my patience, and that's when prayer and humility keep me walking down the road of kindness and mercy (for myself and for my friends).

Yet, as it would with any real mother, only takes a smile, a bad joke or pun, or simply a warm hug to bring any hostile feelings to it's knees and remind me how much I truly love my beautiful friends--who I have the privilege to call my family.

Having maternal instincts is a blessing and a burden. It grabs people stepping out into the street too early, but also results in backseat cooking when someone starts cutting the cheese at a weird angle and fingers are dangerously involved. It brings breakfast left on the stove but also alienates your roommates when you bring home yet another plant because you're trying to feel motherly over those instead of the animals you would stuff your house full of if it weren't for the extra fees.