Mom, I love you. Do you know how much? A lot. You do everything for me even when I don’t ask you to. You went through the nine months of getting fatter and fatter, to give birth to me, only to discover I am a huge pain in your ass. I know I am, but you still did everything possible to make me happy.

When I was 12, I decided I wanted to be an actress in musicals. You looked up the best dance studio and no matter what the price was, you decided to put me in it. I took lessons until my freshman year of high school. It was then that I decided that acting wasn’t what I wanted to do anymore, it was teaching. You didn’t get angry because all that money you spent on dance lessons, costumes, and hair products, to you it wasn’t a waste. To you, it was a part of my life, an experience, that I will take with me. I did; you don’t know how many times I have been listening to music and try to make up my own little dance routine. That just proves that the money spent wasn’t a waste, whether I decided to be an actress or not.

Part of being a parent is making sure your child is safe. Middle school was the worst three years of my life. Bullying took the biggest toll it could have ever taken on me. You were there through it all trying to help. Telling me that everything those people were saying was not true and that I needed to ignore them no matter how hard it was. I fell into a deep depression (but that story is for another article), but you tried so hard to bring me out of it. You went to the school, threatened them, told them that if you lost me because they wouldn’t help me, you would sue. You, my mother, were so afraid of losing me, and I am deeply sorry I did that for you. But I still want to thank you for being there and trying to make the hell I was living in easier to live in.

Now I’m in college. People still treat me badly, but I have learned from you. I do not let it get to me anymore. I know that they treat me badly because they aren’t fully OK with themselves. I learned that from you. You, my mother, have taught me how to give others respect, even when it is not deserved. Now I am in college, and it may seem like I don’t need you anymore, but now is when I need you most. It is within these next few years that I will most likely meet my future husband, and I will need your help picking the right one. It is within these next few years that I will mess up and fail more times than I ever have in my life, but that’s OK because I have you to cheer me on and to tell me to try again.

You, my mother, will always be here for me no matter my age. I could be 60 and you 90, and you will still help me through anything. I will never be able to do

enough to repay you, but the least I can do is thank you. I love you, and I thank you for everything you have and will do for me.