05/10/2026
Happy Motherās Day to the first woman who ever told me I was too much, who shrunk away from my hugs when I was 4, who let me sit on the floor on the other side of a closed door at 8 years old asking her to let me in one day, to the woman who told 11 year old me during her scheduled visitations with me from the judge that I was too much work and she wanted only my siblings instead, to the woman whose voicemail I left countless crying messages into at 12 years old telling her I was being abused and needed her and never heard back, to the woman who when I was 13 and homeless it took six months of begging to convince her to let me live with her and then it was only if I paid/earned my way, to the woman who told me I was the problem when I was 15 and one day Iād see when I have kids how difficult it was to love me and be my mother.
And then I birthed a child who is exactly like me and sheās exhausting in the best ways, and she pushes me to the edge but thatās her job, and she fills my heart with so much love and anguish and raising her is the hardest and most wonderful thing I will ever do because sheās going to be a fighter like me, a leader like me, and in this generation, I wonāt be her first bully. Iāll be her first cheerleader.
So Happy Motherās Day to the woman who made me an incredible mother because I became everything she couldnāt be for me.
