My Perfect Life

One weekend, we had decided to clean out the house to surprise my mother. My father found papers stashed away that revealed theft charges; my mother had stolen medication when she substituted for the nurse in my elementary school. I remember my dad scouring the house for more evidence, even finding a stash of pill bottles under their mattress. She had another court date coming up that he learned about, just a few weeks before a family trip to Disney. Shortly after that hearing, my family took our last vacation as a whole, knowing that a key member would be lost to us the Monday after our return; she was going into work-release for two months. Before the end of those sixty days, my father learned that my mother had been unfaithful. Their marriage ended, and at eleven and nine, my sister and I said what we didn't realize would be goodbye to our mother for a great while. Her drug abuse continued, and months of time would pass between visits. We saw that sweet, ideal mother devolve into an addict. This loss has shaped me greatly, and it has taught me integrity, strength of character, and great love for others; without these things, my mother cost herself her family and

My mother has helped me to understand myself, and to develop my characteristics because we have spent the majority of our lives together. One specific example would be in 2015, during an excursion to The Gower Peninsula in Wales, when, over a bonfire, we conversed about my father, and the subject of my conception came up. My mother told me that I was a mistake, because she was worried that she wouldn’t be an adequate mother, and tried abortion. This impacted me considerably, and it has made me live more in the moment because anything can happen, I didn’t feel like I was a mistake, or a failure or any of those labels, but I did realize that my time is limited, and I have to make the most of it. Another example is that during the initial split, my mother lived 5 minutes away from my house, and I would regularly make unscheduled visits to her apartment, and just talk to her. I comforted my mother, and we would talk for many hours. During that time, I hid my feelings behind my humor and

I grew up learning everything myself and my mom never really listened to me and because of that now I'm used to keeping everything to myself and she wonders why but that is not her fault. I had to survive, that’s what I call it because you either had to hide the certain special things you wanted and expect the worst out of your older brothers. There were never any words of advice from my older brothers towards me and at the moment given I was only allowed to see my father on the weekends. When my father said specific things he said is using big words, and at the moment I was too young and he was very wise as he had been in my position. My two older brothers have a different dad than my older brother and I. The time my mom was struggling in working and not receiving help from no one and had to maintain 4 male children that fought for food as it was scarce and fought for clothing even if it was too big or too small. This has made me realize that the image a

My mom helps me with everything. School, pays for my cell phone and car because I go to school. She sets up my doctors’ appointments. She tells me what I do and don’t need. She helps me define myself as a women so I can have kids one day, be a great mother like she is, raise a family, have a nice home, get a job. She helps me with all of these things along with two others, my older brother and my younger sister. My older brother had a full ride to go play football at a college and instead of taking the ACT he went and partied it up the night before and lost his chance of playing. He just had a baby and was living with my parents not too long ago and he’s 22. My mom does her very best everyday to help us all out. She doesn’t have to worry very hard with my sister. She’s a sophomore in college and has never made a B in her life. She’s already getting letters from big schools to go there. My mom is very proud of her as I am too. I’ve put my mom through so much along with my brother. For example, it’s my third semester in college and I’m at my third school. I just wasn’t built with my sister’s brains. I’m here, in college, for my mom. She always says, “Please go do big things. Don’t quit like your father and I did when it came to

My mom is a very perceptive woman. She’s always had a way of explaining the world and the people within it. It came as a great shock to myself when I learned she was extroverted, as I had always known her to exhibit introverted mannerisms. I had assumed she would be the watchful and quiet one, but she’s usually the life of the party. That’s when I started to ask her about her life. She’s experienced enough things to warrant a jaded perspective of the world, yet she still holds some appreciation. I owe her much more than just giving her a mutual respect and completing my chores. I attribute my perspective on the world to my mom. My personality was shaped from her open mind and helped me find my passions in life. I’ve always had a strong sense of who I am, what I want to do in life. I know that I’ll always be welcomed back to her regardless of any mistakes I may

There have been a vast number of lives that have touched mine. Many different people have shared a piece of their soul in my formation. However, it is my mother who is the most important and most influential person in my life. My mother raised me by herself since the day I was born. My father was abusive and she left to make a better life for the both of us. She has worked as many as four jobs at one time. My mother wants to make sure my brothers and I have a better life than she did. It hasn’t always been easy for her, taking care of us on her own, trying to pay bills and making sure we had everything we needed. My mom has always had us involved in sports at a very young age. We always were doing something or involved in something

Moving along with my adolescence years, mine and my mother 's relationship drifted further and further apart. I found myself in my own physically abuse relationship at the age of fourteen till seventeen. When I look at myself, I see so much of my mother and the women she is.

Watching my mother live from pay check to pay check when I was young was difficult. It was always hard for my mom to keep up with other parents but, she still somehow managed to get me everything I wanted, and more. Even though I was too young to understand, I could feel the stress, and the struggles my mom faced every day. She was only 20 years old when I was born and, because of that she had no choice but to grow up fast. At such a young age, I saw the effects of being a single parent, and the ways it changed my mom. She not only had to be a young mother but, she had to find a way to replace the void of a father, or a father figure in my life. My mom was strong, independent and courageous. Growing up watching her live her dreams under all the circumstances she faced, made me want to strive for a better life for myself. Seeing how hard is was to live and to have enough

Chapter 8: I love this chapter so much. "People who care for others have been found to have less depression and higher life satisfaction-they are more protected from disease and even death." (Napoli, 2014). My mom has been my greatest example and my anchor in life. The divorce between my parent is quite ugly. They have been divorce for over a decade; my dad still talks about bad things behind her back. I confronted my father that I know the exact reasons behind the divorce and asked him to stop talking bad things about mom. Sometimes, I will tell my mom what my dad said about her. She would not be angry; instead, she will ask me to forget about what he said and do not let it disturb me. My parent has mutual friends, and I thought my mom will be disconnected with all of them. Instead, she still stays in touch with them and even hang out with them. She is such a woman who has a big and loving heart!

While a father’s role plays a huge part, there is a great opportunity for a mother’s influence. And I didn’t realize this until…

Each and every day she is forced to love and take care of a man who will never deserve a woman like her. I can’t bring myself to live with that. Endless conversations have been debilitated with telling my mother it’s not worth it, telling her she has two children that love her more than my father ever will. Despite the pulsing nerves spewing through me with every word, the hardest part of those conversations are listening to how my mom felt. Hearing her voice crack as tears fill her eyes when she tells me she loves me. I’m her best friend. I’m the only person in the whole world who knows what her heart aches for, what she truly needs. And I can’t handle not being able to give it to her. It’s my liability she isn’t happy, I know there is something I should be able to do to fix it for

    In life, many things can be taken for granted - especially the things that mean the most to you. You just might not realize it until you've lost it all. As I walk down the road finishing up my teenage days, I slowly have been finding a better understanding of my mother. The kind of bond that mothers and daughters have is beyond hard to describe. It's probably the biggest rollercoaster ride of emotions that I'll ever have the chance to live through in my lifetime. But, for those of us who are lucky enough to survive the ride in one piece, it's an amazing learning experience that will influence your entire future.

As a child I used to believe that my life could not get any better because at the age of 6, I had everything that I ever wanted. I was the center of attention and my parents always had enough time to play with me. I always received the most expensive toys, dolls and clothes from my relatives and cousins. I was also brash and troublesome, purposely placing my older siblings in trouble whenever they made me cry or when they don’t follow the things I wanted them to do. In short, I had the life of a very spoiled, stubborn and ignorant child but nevertheless, I used to believe that my life was perfect. That was before my parents told me that I was having a younger sibling.

When I was young my mother and my father both had very different opinions on how you should raise a child. And since my father was the one paying the bills and bringing home the paychecks for a few years, I didn’t really get to see him much because he worked all day. So my mother was the one who raised me for the most part. At the time she would spoil me like crazy. If I asked for something the answer would always be yes, and if I didn’t get my way I would start having a fit until she finally caved in. You could’ve called me a crybaby, go ahead I would’ve said the same thing. Because I was. My father’s best friend who had two twins both the same age as me invited me, my father and my mother over to there place for an easter egg hunt easter morning. During the easter egg hunt, me and my friend both turned a corner at the same time. He saw an egg and as he was going to grab it, I saw it and tried to get it also. He got there before me and I started to have a fit right there and then. I could remember my mother rushing up to see what’s wrong. After I told her what had happened she got me to stop crying and gave me extra candy. My dad knew that by her raising me like this I wouldn’t be able to get anywhere in life without someone being there whenever something went wrong, so he told her to take the candy back and to tell me to get over it and that not everything in life will be fair. She took that the wrong way and got mad at my dad for “not being a good parent” because didn’t

Fast forward a couple years to 2013, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. This was not and still is not an easy thing to have to deal with. This lady who was always this strong person who wouldn’t take crap from anyone has now been beaten down too sick to get out of bed. Our roles have switched now I take care of her, I lie with her for countless hours making sure she is okay just as she did when I was a kid. My mom comes to me for security and reassurance now, I have to be there for her and stay strong. I had to learn to talk to her without crying every time I looked at her. When you were a child your parent crying was one of the scariest things so I have had to do the same for her. This has ultimately pushed me to young adult hood. I had to deal with this huge emotional disaster and the woman who I usually run to for advice was the center of the