My senior year of high school was at times a disaster describing my home life. As my mom and I played tug-of-war over my blooming need for independence, war ensued. I'd ask to go out with friends and she'd ask me a million questions. When my annoyed vague answers where unfulfilling for the "Riddler", a fight would break out. This made leaving for college a whole hell of a lot easier. Now, I was the first born, a prize to be fought over, I was the baby Rumpelstiltskin did want, but no tears were shed the day I left home. However, something strange happened over the course of my first semester in college.

I began tomiss my wonderful mother. Before I left, she was worried I wasn't going to need her anymore but I found out I needed her more than ever after I left for college: her advice, her hugs, her care, her worry, her constant support. My mom is my personal cheerleader and it took me a whole semester without her to figure it out. Only now, I realize she asked me all those questions because she cared and wanted to make sure I was safe. After I left for college, she described me leaving the house "as a part of her leaving." This kind of love touched my heart in a way I didn't think possible

So when I came home for winter break, I was ecstatic to spend a whopping five weeks with my family. While I worked most of my break, I would come home to a place where I was comfortable and sure of myself. I knew I could be myself around my mom and it was like a cloak of invisibility from the rest of reality. For after a semester of wavering anxiety and uncertainty as I adjusted to a new home with seventeen thousand new neighbors, going home to my mom was just the medicine I needed.

College is amazing and I love where I decided to go to school, do not get me wrong. But now my heart is split in two. Being an outstanding, loving, hardworking, homemaking, multitasking, mother? Now that is a true gift. So mom, thank you for being my inspiration, my hero, and for all that you do. I wish it hadn't taken me a whole semester to figure out that everything you do, you do with your children in mind and love in your heart.