Carmela's January 31 Journal

While listening to the song all I could think about was if someone in this room either had a bad relationship with their mom or if their mom didn’t raise them. I then started to think about my friend Natalie who just lost her mom in September. How that wound is still fresh. If she had been in here she may have gotten emotional because she and her mom were so close and now her mom is gone. I know a lot of people who have bad relationships with their mom, don’t know their mom, or have lost their mom. Knowing so many people in situations like this make me even more grateful of what my mom does for me. She raised my brother and me and did the best she could. My dad was not around much because of the restaurants he owns, leaving the child rearing to my mom. My mom would make the hour long drive to my middle and high school every day until I was able to drive myself junior year. She came to every single cross country race when I was in middle school and cheered so loudly that all the other teams knew that Sycamore School had a runner named Carmela. She came to the regattas when they were at home in Indiana. She attended every single band concert, soccer game, and tennis match. She was always there. She always had food on the table for me. She always helped me with homework. She always pushed me to do my best. Raising her kids was already a full time job, just like other moms, but she decided that she was done sitting at home waiting to get me from school. When I was in 8^th grade she went back to school and got her masters in history. She graduated on May 2^nd which also happened to be her 50^th birthday. My mom is my rock star. She’s a marathoner (she’s running her 10^th Boston Marathon this April and I think that’s also her 22^nd marathon) and she’s now training for an Iron Man. My mom is my hero and I do appreciate her. My brother and I do everything we can to show that but we know that nothing will ever be able to properly prove it to her.