She is around 5’9, has dark brown hair and it’s a little longer than her shoulders. She has light, tan skin and deep brown eyes. The woman I am describing is my mother. Her name is Leticia and she is my best friend. Our relationship is unlike any other and I am definitely lucky to be able to call her my mom!

During those pre-school and elementary days, I was this spunky, weird girl who always wore her pants too high that my ankles would show or my pants were too low that you could see my underwear. Either way Leticia never once told me to pull down my pants or to pull them up. She let me be me, which is awesome, but I know whenever my future self will look back on it I will cringe with embarrassment. My pants problem was not the only trouble I had to deal with. During this time in my life, friends were superfluous, which of course meant DRAMA! I came home from school every other day crying saying that Anna stole my toy or that Jaci pushed me down the slide. She told me that tomorrow is a new day and to forgive them, and of course I did not hold it against them. In elementary that was easy, but middle school came along and things got a bit more complicated.

In middle school sports were the thing to do and friends sucked. Everyone was judgmental and we all had braces, so we were cranky during the lunch hour when we tried to bite into our hamburgers but it hurt terribly. On top of that, all of us girls did not know how to hold in our jealous desires so we just ended up hating that person. We had our cliques and if you were not in a certain clique everyone thought you were a loser. So coming home when my particular clique was mean to me that day I would hold it in and not tell my mom. These were the days when I felt like my mom was kind of weird and she did not know anything about being young and the struggles that came with it. Since little ole me held everything in, there was a day I would just burst in tears and tell my mom everything. She began to take things a bit more seriously since it was more severe than stealing a toy or being pushed down the slide. She actually told me that if someone bullied me again to take them by the collar and shove them up against the locker. Of course I knew I could not do it but I knew I needed to learn how to stick up for myself. Eventually I just learned to laugh it off and not worry what other people say or think about me. Throughout middle school I began to learn who I was, and it was with the help of my mom that brought me to it. I survived middle school and I got a best friend out of it! Now it was high school,I thought it was going to be a breeze and it was going to be the best time of my life.

At this point in my high school career I am a junior and my relationship with my mom has only gotten stronger. I now tell my mom everything. She knows about the drama in my life and peer pressures I have endured. She has seen me on my worst days when all I do is complain that nothing in life is going right. My mom is the best advice giver out there and although many times I have said she was wrong, she always turned out to be right. As my high school career continues I expect my mom and I to continue with our nightly chats while eating popcorn and drooling over the Hawaii 5-0 men. Many nights we have discussed my future college life. I have expressed my thoughts on going to California and my mom is just as excited as I am. She understands where I am coming from and she realizes my dream.

Everyone at some point in their life has been embarrassed by their mom, but in my case, I really did not care. I learned not to talk back and to not ask questions on why I could not go to someone else’s house, instead I looked on the bright side of spending the night baking cookies with her or having her paint my nails just to take them off ten minutes later and re-do them. These were the nights I cherished and also the years I could not drive. Driving was never a big deal for me when I hit high school just because I was the best driver among my siblings. She would and will always say whenever I leave the house, “Goodbye, love you and have a good day!” This is the one sentence I will forever cherish and carry on to my children.

Many of us go through stages with our moms. We like them, we dislike them, they are annoying, or they just do not understand. But one day you will realize that she is the one person who has always been there for you. I am the lucky one to have found this out early in life, but if you are still in your journey and figuring things out, remember fighting is normal. You just have to learn how to forgive, love and forget. My mom is unlike any other. She is the perfect role model and my best friend. I am blessed to be able to call her mom and I would not have it any other way.