Some people may call this “mid-life crisis”, but I like to call it “life lesson recall.” Some of the things I am going to share with you will come from different periods in my life. Most of these were written during a master’s class I was taking at Rollins College. Writing for me is very cathartic and healing. Hope you enjoy!
“A Mother’s Words”
I have always had such wonderful teachers who had the nicest things to say about me and to me, but the words that come to mind at this moment are my mother’s words.
It was Christmas time just 4 months after my dad had died. My Aunt Mona and her 5 kids had just left our house. They had brought us, strapped securely to a red wagon, a white-flocked Christmas tree fully decorated. We placed it in front of the bay window in the living room. We sang Christmas carols, cried and they left.
I had a secret and I just couldn’t tell my mom, so I just handed her the paper as she sat teary-eyed on the orange leather couch (remember it was the 70’s). The paper was a progress report stating that my math grade was a 68F. I began to cry. I knew my mom would be disappointed and yell at me.
But she didn’t. She came and sat next to me, put her arm around me and said to me, “It’s not the end of the world. You can get through this. I believe in you.” Her words calmed my anxiety and eased my stress.
It was not just her words, but how she spoke them that made me realize, considering what we were going through, the stress of my father dying and her returning to the workforce, it was a miracle I wasn’t failing more subjects. It wasn’t long before she was encouraging me to go for extra help after school and to return to my regular routine of studying.
From then on my grades in math improved. I went from a D student in math to a solid B+ student. (It was that B in math that always kept me off the Alpha honor roll). In that brief moment, my mother’s words of comfort and encouragement gave me the motivation I needed to face my fear of failure, learn from it and move on.
Little did she know those words would shape the person I was to become and help me work through the rough times I’m experiencing now in life. I love you Mom and miss you terribly!
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