Dear Mommy,

As I scour over the myriad of Mother’s Day Facebook statuses, Instagram photos, and Twitter posts, I wrack my brain trying to figure out what I can say to encompass my feelings without sounding generic and trite. I have scrolled through pages and pages of Google search results for “Humorous Mother/Son Quotes,” only to come up empty, and without running the risk of typing out an obnoxiously long Facebook post for people to roll their eyes at, I decided to type up an entire blog post just for you! (Don’t worry dad, you will get one of these also).

They say that a person has two birthdays – one being the day they were born, and the other being the day they find out why. Over the past few years, you have watched me fight with myself trying to figure out exactly why I was put on this Earth, trying to figure out what my true calling is. You saw me change my major and change my career choice many times, but throughout this entire inner battle with myself, you have been patient with me, never rushing me to make up my mind for the purpose of getting me out of school and into the work force. Instead, you nurtured my interests and supported whatever career it was that I was drawn to that week. And instead of rolling your eyes at my outlandish dreams and aspirations, you walked beside me throughout the entire process all the way to the end of those pipe dreams when I finally came to my senses.

You truly are the strongest woman I know, having gone through many tough situations in your life, from the rough stages of your childhood to being separated by 400 miles from your husband and your children. Yet you still manage to go about your days with a smile on your face and a hope brighter than all of the stars in the universe combined. It is because of your strength, your hope, and your unwavering faith in God that I know I can get through the most challenging of circumstances that life can throw onto my path. As cliche as this is going to sound, without your presence in my life, I would not be the man that I am slowly finding myself to be (mostly because without you, I wouldn’t even exist).

I know that it wasn’t easy having me as a son (as you have told me countless times before) as I was going through my extremely angst-filled preteen an early teenage years, but you never gave up on me. Even if you did, I wouldn’t blame you because I now realize that I was one of the brattiest kids on the face of the Earth. Though majority of my middle school days were spent being confined to my room, grounded because of some snotty thing I said to you and dad, or some nasty thing I did to someone else, I know it wasn’t easy seeing me resent you and dad, and I would just like you to know that I now understand that these things were done out of love, to give me the best chance I could have in life.

And so I would like to end this long heartfelt letter by saying thank you. Thank you for defending me from all of the mean teachers, for protecting me from all of the bullies. Thank you for eighteen years worth of free food and free rent, for loving and appreciating all of my friends as if they were your own. Thank you for watching me grow into the man I am now, for reading (or at least skimming) all of my blog posts and telling me how good of a writer you think I am. Thank you for being my biggest fan. Thank you for choosing me.

With Love,
Your little boy, your bunso, your little prince.