I would like to take a moment this Sunday, appropriately Mother’s Day, to appreciate my Mom. I may be biased, but I think that my mother is a tremendous person. She taught me things about life and myself just by going about her own life. So much of who I am today is because I had her to look up to as I was growing up.

My mom went back to college later in life to get a degree in education and pursue a career as a teacher. I can’t even imagine how difficult that journey must have been for her. She would often be one of the older people in her classes. She had been out of school for a long time and didn’t have the benefit of things like math being fresh in her memory to help ease the transition. She had to balance out the expectations of being a mom to me and my sisters and a wife to her husband all while studying and writing papers. To this day I marvel at her strength not only for what she did but also what she continues to do.

I’m sure there were times where she wondered if she could do it, if it was worth it, if she was being selfish for doing this, what it all would amount to. But I believe she recognized something within herself, a spark of purpose, something where she knew that she could make a difference in people’s lives by giving a piece of herself through teaching. She owed it to herself to see how brightly that spark could burn. In the end, it was worth it and she is one of the teachers that I believe makes an impact on her students.

Because of my mom, I know that it is no such thing as it being too late in life or too old to reinvent yourself and pursue your passions, so I don’t need to worry about getting it “right” in life. I know to always be myself, because that’s the best version of me I can be, and to not let other think of me keep me from being myself. I know there is never any reason to give up and that we are so much stronger than we know. I know that for as many times as you get turned down and that the odds are stacked against you, to keep going, because it only takes one opportunity to show what you can do. I know to seize the opportunities that life gives me with everything I have and to put a piece of myself in the things that I do. My mom is awesome, and I’m proud to be her son.