My mom is my pride

My mom always tells me how proud she is of me, but I’ve never acknowledged how proud I am of her.

Pride isn’t a common feeling for a child to have for their parent, but over the weekend I was thinking about all the things my mom has done in her life and where she is now, and I felt an extreme sense of pride for her.

Every day my mom tries to do things that will help her achieve dreams or help her start new adventures. For example, she stepped up the corporate ladder to the position she has been working toward for 30 years. She is happier in her new position, where she is doing things she likes to do.

My mom used to attend Heidelberg college, but her campus closed so she is now going to UT. This is her first semester here. She was there for six years. She is attending college now to finish her degree because she left college to be a parent. It has taken her a long time because she can only take one or two classes a semester. If the opportunity comes up, I would also want to take a class with her.

In addition to going after her career goals, my mom is also trying other adventures. She got a passport and is planning to go to Europe next year. We never used to travel or go on vacations, so it is nice to see her do things for herself now. When I see the changes my mom is making in her life, there is nothing but happiness in my heart for her.

But I didn’t used to feel this way about my mom. No, in fact, I was angry at her for the changes she was making, and I resented her and the decisions she made..

My mom attended college in Michigan in the 80s for a year before moving to Toledo with my dad. She got a job, but she never graduated from college. Eventually she left work in the 90s to be a stay-at-home mom. When I was 10 she went back to work and everything in our family changed.

Her new job paid for her to take classes so she could complete her degree. So some nights instead of getting home at 5:30, she wouldn’t be home until 9 p.m. A few years after this change, my parents’ relationship ended in divorce; although they are friends now.

I placed all the blame on my mom for all of the shortcomings of our family. I thought that if my mom hadn’t gone back to work, my parents would still be in love. If my mom hadn’t gone back to college, she wouldn’t have moved out. If my mom cared about me at all, she would have stayed.

As ridiculous as those things sounds right now, that is what I thought. It actually took me a few years to get past this way of thinking, and to stop blaming my mom for the things that happened. I had to look at it from my mom’s perspective to fully understand where she was coming from.

As children, we don’t see our mothers as people with dreams and aspirations: we see them as our moms, there solely to take care of us. But as we grow up, we are able to empathize and put ourselves in their shoes. I think we all need more empathy when considering other people’s choices. Sometimes the best choices for those people, don’t match with what we hoped they would choose.

Now I look at my mother’s decisions with pride because she did what was best for her. She is working at a place she loves. She is getting the education she has been waiting for her whole life and there are new adventures waiting for her at her door.

My mom always tells me how proud she is of me, but I’ve only scratched the surface of how proud I am of her..

Morgan Rinckey is a third-year double-majoring in English and Communication.