HOW I MET MY MOTHER

Like many other people, I loved my mother a lot, since childhood, I walked holding her hand, telling her even when I went to pee, I was clingy. She has always been my person, my mum. 

As a toddler life is all chill and fun, only sleep, eat and play. At that age everyone is your friend and no one is really your enemy; you cry when your father gets a clean shave or when your mother loves your sibling more, to tease you. The easy part of life ends there. Then you enter your school, as a child pretty much unaware of how the world functions. You get some enemies at this stage but nothing much personal. Your mother is still your best friend and knows all about your life. Waking up to go to school every day, class politics and some bullying maybe, some struggles add-in, but all good otherwise. Then comes, the nightmare, the truth and face off with brutality, the teenage years. You push away most people, things and habits that you loved doing just a year ago. You have crushes, heart breaks, maybe even a real job experience. All of this is definitely overwhelming, new and changes your view of the world. 

That's when you notice, her. A little older than you remember, wrinkled and so like you, like a twin. You realise, she was your best friend all along, how knowingly, deliberately she has been a constant part of your life. The way she smiles, laughs and adores every little thing, a beautiful soul she is. Your mother. Waiting to be really noticed by you, waiting to be acknowledged, waiting for you to come out of your, self-centered world. It is not like you forgot, quite the opposite, you see her every day, but do you really see her? I guess not. I guess she has been a background in your life, a deity you visited to crib about your small little problems, a person you took for granted. At least I did, until I was 21, I did. 

That's when I met her, my mother, not as my mother though, but as a real person, as another human being who was not just a background character of my life. She told me things, she confided in me, she made me see what her life was like. She became my best friend again, but this time we both knew a little about each other, this time it was not a situationship and this time we both were young girls, sailing through life. I saw the world through her eyes, a life I could never have imagined before, if it was not for her. 

Thank you, mother, for the sacrifices you made so that I don't have to ever make them.