This is for my momma

This is a short(ish) post. :)

So as I'm sitting here looking for apartments online and scheduling appointments to go see them (in a language that I've been speaking for only 3 months) I start to think about my mom.

Some days I thought my mom was b***h, with a capital B at that! But when I was a teenager and being punished of course I would think that LOL. What teenage girl hasn't said that about their mother?? ... But now that I am living in Italy and looking for apartments and some supplemental income since I have so much free time I am so grateful to have her. Words cannot express how much I appreciate her. She would always tell me, "You'll thank me later."...But who actually believes that when you're walking a mile to the bus stop in the middle of Georgia summer to go to work to pay for your car repair from a crash (yup...y'all remember the blue door on Sunshine, may she R.I.P.). My mom would let me call a friend to drop me off every once in a while, and she would be pick me up after work because it was dark. But I remember her saying, "You can't always depend on other folks. You have to be independent and figure things out yourself...get online and find the bus schedule..." And before I hit my teenage years it was, "If I go there and find whatever you're looking for I'm going to bust your knuckles." THAT will motivate you to look a little harder! Eventually I stopped asking my mom how to spell things because "The first three letters are _ _ _, go find it in the dictionary." was NOT the response I wanted to hear. LOL

Part of the reason I wasn't scared to move to Milan alone is because I knew I had a solid foundation. My mom raised me to be strong and independent, and even when I failed (even when she KNEW I would fail) she wasn't there to put the pieces back together for me, she was there to show me how to put the pieces back together myself. As I prepare myself to back out into a city that I have quickly realized I barely know, I'm not scared. And before not being scared the biggest point is that I even know how to do it. At 22 I am fully capable of searching the internet, setting appointments in my third language, and setting up a financial plan/budget for how I'm going to live alone thousands of miles from home and make it work. The best part about all of this is that if everything falls through in 60 days, I can get on a plane and be welcomed home with open arms. She'll give me a few months to get back on my feet, then she'll start charging me rent till I find my own place :P

Thank God, Allah, Buddah, and anyone else for Sharon Lardyce Moore.