Mother's Day. A day where we take a little extra time to show our mothers just how much we appreciate them and how much we love them because after all, they've loved us since day one. I'm sure we all can admit that our mothers have seen it all. They've seen us when we were on top of the world, at our most triumphant and they've been there to hold us and guide us when we didn't think we could take one more step. Our mothers know everything about us, they know the good, the bad and the ugly and at the end of the day they accept us for who we are. So I want to say a big "thank you" to all of the mothers out there because they deserve to be reminded of just how much we really do appreciate them.

Thank you for your unending sacrifices. It's easy to say that our mothers have sat through countless sporting events, music lessons, band practices and parent-teacher conferences when there were a million other things they needed to do. But at the end of the day, they decided to put us first, yet again, because to them, our happiness was their happiness. So thank you for sacrificing your time so you could make our time, our childhood, one to remember with you in the stands, constantly cheering us on.

Thank you for never giving up on us. No late night or silly worry could ever sway our mothers from throwing in the towel. They always took our problems or our worry and made it theirs because even when we wanted to give up, they kept us going and kept reminding us that if we just keep moving we will reach our goals.

Thank you for teaching us how to be an individual. Discovering who we are during our teenage years can truly be a struggle, so when I say thank you for teaching us to be an individual, it's one of the biggest "thank you's" out there. We could always look to you for guidance and count on you to help us learn right from wrong and through that, we were able to learn how to be a strong, independent person. We learned how to stand up for ourselves and stand up for what we believe in all because our mothers served as a constant reminder of what it really means to be an individual.

Thank you for showing us how to love ourselves. Last but not least, our mothers have shown us unconditional love since before we even knew what it meant to love someone else. Learning to love yourself can be a difficult task in a society where "the perfect image" is constantly displayed everywhere you look. Everywhere you go you see or hear versions of the person society wants you to be, the person society tries to make you be. So thank you to our moms who taught us that we are more than just an image and have so much more to offer. By doing this, our mothers have taught us to accept ourselves and those around us and in turn, we have learned to love who we have become.

So once again, thank you to all of the mothers out there. You are much appreciated and dearly loved. Happy Mother's Day!