5 Things My Mother Taught Me

Here’s the thing, I love my mom. My angsty teenage years of fighting with her are long gone. That angst has been replaced with pure admiration. She is one of the most incredible, intelligent, and kindhearted people I have ever met. My mom is a hippie, a historian, and a hell of a cool lady. So in today’s blog, I’m going to go over 5 things I learned from this awesome woman.

1. How to bake

• My mom and I both grew up in the South where everyone knows the importance of a good homemade sweet. Personally, I love baking. It’s relaxing, it’s not too complicated, and in the end, you get a tasty little treat. Who wouldn’t love that? Ever since I was little, my mom let me help out in the kitchen. She helped me bake my first pie (chocolate chess pie) and she taught me the science behind the reaction of baking soda and vinegar in banana bread. Now, whenever I’m stressed I have a really fun and tasty hobby to turn to.

2. How to learn

• Most people my age were told growing up that if they want to get a good job, they’d have to go to college. My mom didn’t tell me that. As far as jobs go, she always supported the idea of me following whatever I was passionate about. Instead of pushing education as a means to an end, she taught me that learning is just fun to do for the sake of learning. I went to college to just learn more, I took several classes outside of the required ones to just dabble in brand new subjects. I try to learn something new, no matter how small, every day because she instilled this passion for knowledge in me.

3. How to appreciate art

• From movies, to music, to books (she is a librarian after all) my mom loves all forms of art. When we were little, my mom read my sibling and me chapter books as bedtime stories instead of picture books. This made us fall in love with stories. When we would finish a movie she would ask for our detailed review. When we said we liked a song she would listen to it and talk about it in depth with us. This helped me grow such an appreciation for all art forms, even if I didn’t necessarily like the art itself.

4. How to care about others

• I mentioned this in this week’s episode, but my mom taught me how to love loudly. What does that mean exactly? People are prone to falling into routine expectations. We assume our friends, family, and partners know that we love them simply because we know we do. But honestly, that’s not enough. Everyone is going through different situations every day and sometimes we forget about or even doubt the love others have for us. My mom taught me not to let others forget. Send your friends little check-in messages or even just memes that remind you of them. Pick up some extra chores around the house to let your family or roommates have a little break. Small acts of kindness or little signs of love are simple, but they’re also necessary.

5. How to enjoy the little things

• When I was little my mother would pick me up from school, there was this one road where we lived in Tennessee that had a lot of small hills and when you drove down that road it would feel like a roller coaster (at least when you’re 6 it did). We would drive down this road and just have a blast. It’s small, but it brought us so much joy. This lesson has stuck with me throughout life. In 2018 I graduated high school and went 13 hours away for college. It was a scary year with a lot of changes. I spent 2 minutes at the end of every day just looking back and writing something down about the day that I appreciated and found joy in. While I no longer do this every single day, I do make sure to do it when I’m having a particularly rough day.

Bottom line? My mom is a super cool person. She was a single parent to my sibling and me, but I never felt like I needed two. One is more than enough as long as they’re as supportive, kind, and intelligent as her. So thanks Mom, and have a Sunny Wednesday.