My mom

Thinking of the reasons that make you love and admire your mom can take you to choose the most obvious circumstances for which generally every mom is credited. I also like the videos where they make fun of the stereotypical Mexican mom: they are very funny because it’s evidence that they all are very similar and made us go through the same stuff when we were young. But if we take some time to think exclusively in our mom we will remember precise moments surrounded by circumstances that left a mark in us and demonstrated that our mom is the most influential person in our lives. 

I remember, for example, in the time that I was studying abroad, I was having problems with my girlfriend of that time. I didn’t want to tell just anyone about this, I was alone over there and nobody knew my girlfriend, and I didn’t feel like writing an email to my friends explaining what was going on. In the end it was my mom I wrote the email to, even though I didn’t feel comfortable telling my mom a very intimate situation and I didn’t think she would be the best person to give me advise on love at that age, but I sent her the email nonetheless. And it wasn’t a mistake. My mom gave me the best advice I could have received and it made me realize a lot of things. It really helped me in that difficult moment. After thinking over what my mom told me it really surprised me that I doubted her, because obviously she knew me perfectly, even though I was twenty-one years old, she was still my mom, and those moments of vulnerability, specially being away from home, are moments in which our personality is in its raw, original and simple state, and thats the personality our mothers know the best. 

Another memory that reminds me of my mother's love and constant support was the time I participated in an oratory contest to win the chance to speak to the governor at an event of the american football association I belonged to. My mom was the one who suggested the president of the club I was in that I could do a good job at that. It was an open announcement, but only one other guy and I responded to it. I was about 13 years old, the other guy was older than me. I was nervous. They asked me to prepare to pronounce an essay written in a sheet of paper in front of the judges who would choose the winner. My mom was with me. When I was practicing we saw the other guy. We were both getting ready but he was clearly more experienced, he looked confident while practicing the text without reading. The I got really nervous, I realized I was not going to be able to memorize the whole text. But my mom told me to not try and memorize it all, but to bring it with me and use it as a guide, without reading the whole thing, but just having some help while showing my oratory skills. 

I went first thinking I would really have liked to go second and have those extra minutes to practice a little bit more. I was really nervous by then, I tried not to feel less for bringing the sheet with me as a guide. I did my thing and walked out. My mom was there already waiting for me and asking how it went. She smiled at me, she reassured me she was proud of me whatever happened and we left. The next week they called me to ask me to prepare an essay written by me to speak to the governor. 

What else can I say but that my mom was the support that helped me be better than the other guy, who went there by himself. My mom prepared me since I was a little boy taking me to oratory lessons so I would learn to speak in public; but also she always believed in me and pushed me to do thing I didn’t think I wasn’t good at; she supported me when it seemed the other contestant was better than me. I have no doubt that that little help she gave me since I was little pushed me to overcome that other guy. That is the support that I’ve always have, even when I didn’t felt it as patently as that time. 

That is my mom, who knew me before I was born. Who learned to decipher my strengths and my weaknesses, and held my hand over many years. She is the one who keeps teaching me, and helps me be better.