1st Blog Assignment

My mother is everything to me. She is my caregiver, my friend, my consultant, my advisor, my number one fan, and one of my greatest inspirations. My mother was born in April of 1956 in Petal, Mississippi. Her mother was only 16 and was forced to drop out of high school in order to become a stay at home mom. Her father was a cowboy, 19, a freshman at the University of Southern Mississippi, working odd jobs between school, working the farm, and rodeos. He didn't have much time to be a father at that time and eventually developed into a raging alcoholic. My grandmother was bitter. She was cruel to my mother and her younger sister. My mother grew up in a chaotic and abusive home but there were flecks of light that kept her going; my grandmother's cooking lessons, my grandfather's elaborate story telling, my mother's huge and loving extended family, friendship, a lot of traveling, a lot of exposure to life and politics and art and music in all their different forms, etc. Most important of all, though, was that her parents, as crazy as they could be, didn't want her to ever end up like them and so they provided her with excellent education and constantly pushed her to keep achieving more. My mother very successfully graduated high school, grad school, law school, and eventually went back to USM and got her degree in psychology and her license to council. The whole time she worked for her education she maintained jobs to support herself, offices in student government, good relationships with friends and boyfriends, a love for art, music, literature, food, and the list goes on and on. My mother never settled and never sold herself short. She worked hard to make sure she didn't end up a pregnant teen stuck in Petal, Mississippi, like her mother and some of her friends did. She made sure she had a successful and fulfilling life that she could be proud of. However, of all her great achievements, she has always told me that her greatest one was and still is teaching all that she knows to her two daughters. My mother was determined that I would have an open mind and a bright and shining future. She taught me about art, food, culture, belief, love, logic, and so much more. She taught me about my rights as a woman and as a human being. My mother taught me to be strong and delicate, compassionate, optimistic, logical, and to never stop dreaming, believing in faeries, or reaching for the stars.