My Mother The Queen

I couldn’t be more proud of my tenacious and curious Mother. I was graced with a family of learners and surrounded by smart people who asked questions about the world around us. The very definition of a life-long learner, my mom instilled in me curiosity, patience, and a deep passion for knowing.

When I endeavored to complete grad school, my mother was my champion (along with so many others). When the coin flipped and she faced the challenge of grad school, I was honored to listen to her puzzle through problems and talk about the ups and downs of classes. She finished her Master of Education degree almost one year ago and I am still glowing with pride and awe for the diligence and tenacity she exhibited in her pursuit of the degree. Having taught others most of her adult life (students and other teachers), she has always stayed abreast of current issues and needs in educating, and best practices and pedagogy. To me, and I believe her as well, the degree was a formalized acknowledgement of her lifetime of striving to be better, do better, and know more.

She was recently given an award from her primary professional organization for Outstanding Master’s Thesis. Her research was well reasoned and her passion for students and teachers shone through her work. Here she was, many months after completing school, doing more work; preparing a presentation, creating a research poster, spending time and money to disseminate this work she literally put blood, sweat, and tears into (the blood was from paper cuts!). Momma presented on her research to her professional peers and has no doubt, from this research and her decades of work in the field, made a lasting impact on teaching and the lives of those lucky enough to be in her tutelage.

My mother is always busy and so am I. We don’t live terribly far apart but it is still somehow difficult to make the time to spend together. This year, we vowed to get together more often and have, so far, done a pretty good job of seeing each other every few weeks. We’ve seen comedy shows, gardened, ate food, celebrated birthdays and holidays.. and regardless of the venue or activity I always find myself saying good bye and feeling so fortunate to learn from a woman so full of grace, humility, joy, and love. She and I can talk so pity to the companion who tries to keep up with us or interject (sorry to our husbands!). Basically, I love her. And, I wanted to brag about my awesome mom.

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