From the moment you are born, you are completely dependent on your mother. She becomes your source of nourishment, comfort, and protection (with the help of Dad, if you're as lucky as I am.) For those first few years of your life, you spend most of your days with your mother, from daybreak to dawn. She wakes you up, makes you breakfast, drives you to school, picks you up, takes you to after-school activities, makes you dinner, and so much more.

As the years pass, the relationship between mother and child naturally changes. From what I've heard, teenager daughters are worse than sons, as we become, in my mother's words, "little bitches." I do not take offense to that as I did go through a phase where I did not treat my mother as she deserved. It also did not help that at the same time I was going through puberty, my mom was going through menopause, so both of our hormones were out of wack. God have mercy on my father during that time. Luckily for him, he travels a lot so he left me and mom alone on the battlefield.

While we did not meet eye-to-eye all the time, my mother and I still had some semblance of a friendship during those rough teenage years. She just had to take on the role of mother more than the role of a friend. However, after three or so years of dueling, we put down our weapons, aka our hormones went back to normal. My junior year, we slowly moved away from the typical parent-child relationship and closer to a friendship. As I got older this friendship only grew stronger.

Now that I am in college, our friendship has definitely gotten stronger. I don't live at home anymore and am living my life as a college student. My moving out has made my mom see me as more of an adult. Although I will add that I am not a fully independent adult because I am "still financially supported by my parents." Yes that is a quote I hear all too often from my mom and dad, especially when they say I can't do something *cue the laughs*.

Our conversations moved from being about dolls and Princesses to boys and what bottle of wine we want to pop open for the night. Always moscato.

Nights when I'm back home now are spent sipping wine on the back porch, talking about the plans for the future, and cooking dinner together while a movie plays in the living room. There is something about being able to enjoy a glass of wine with your mom that makes you feel like you can tell her everything about your life. That being said, I share most everything about my life with her, and that naturally makes our friendship even stronger than it was before.

To my amazing mother, thank you so much for always being there for me, even when I was a bitchy teenager. I love you more than I can put into words.