April is an action-packed month meaning there’s a bunch of very important birthdays. If you stopped by the blog yesterday, you heard about my friendship with Trish who celebrated her birthday yesterday. Today is another very important Aries’ birthday…
There’s no one quite like my mom. If you’ve been lucky enough to have met her, you’ll completely understand what I’m saying. She has these little whit-isms, snippets of advice, if you will that make total sense but also make you crack up. For example:
“Some days you’re the bat. Some days you’re the ball.”
Think about it. It makes complete sense but you absolutely smiled while reading it. There’s more than just these pieces of advice too. She’s an NYU graduate, put herself through college while working, raised two kids and is an executive director at Morgan Stanley. She makes jokes about everyone, including herself. She raised me on 70’s Disco, The Beatles, Mariah Carey’s 1’s CD and TLC, among many others. She works very hard but also knows how to enjoy life. She listens to all my crazy stories, gives sound advice and is the best cook I’ve ever met. She’s my mom so you’d assume I’m a little biased, right?
Ok, I probably am biased. But not entirely. My mom is tough in every sense of the word. Tough meaning her expectations for everyone including herself are exceptionally high. Tough meaning she’s good at hiding how she really feels. Tough meaning she can take on the world but demands we all do the same. At a point in time, I didn’t see any of this or understand it. It took years, going away to college and several screaming matches for me to realize I’m lucky to have the mom I do.
We never used to get along the way we do now. Trust me, there’s still moments when I wonder what in
the name of all things holy is she thinking. Guaranteed she thinks the same thing about me. We figured it out despite our differences. Our personalities are not exactly alike though there are some similarities: how we cook and host parties, the music we like, how hard we work and how passionate we are. There’s a bunch of differences too: I’m more OCD, she’s more focused, I’m more emotional and she’s better with money and numbers. We’re certainly not the same person, but the important traits have stuck. When I say I got it from my mama, I’m not lying.
In 22.5 years, my relationship with my mom has grown and changed over and over again. She is my role model, the reason why I believe I can do both, the career and the family. We don’t get it right every day or even every other day. But, we try to learn from each other. I’m so lucky to have her as my mom and can’t wait to celebrate her birthday tonight! The song that inspired this post’s title is below.
Tagged: Birthdays, Differences, Disco, Expectations, Family, Mariah Carey, Mother, Music, Perspective, Relationships, The Beatles, TLC, Toughness
The Rockstar Diaries 
Great song… and even greater post. You don’t have to do everything the same, but as long as you know you both have it right, you are golden.
Thanks for reading and sharing Jason! One of my favorite song — pretty sure there’s a video somewhere of me singing it around age 3!
WOW – I am so touched but mostly, as always, proud of the woman you’ve become. We are more alike than different but…EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT – and that is what makes it all so
interesting. I love you sooo much…mom
Awesome song you’ve got there! =)
April is always packed with a lot of birthdays, especially in my family. Two important people in my life will celebrate their birthday in the month of April – my mom and my fiancee. It is very odd because there birthdays are right next to one another! My fiancee’s birthday is on the 14th and my mother’s is on the 15th. Gr, lol!
Have a great week!
[…] Heaven Must Have Sent You is by far the best disco song of all […]