My Mother: The Role Model

Although she has not won a Nobel Prize, my mother is a great woman that I will live to admire. She is the fourth-born in a family of seven children and two parents. According to my grandmother, my mother was born on 31st July 1967. In that special Monday, she appeared to be interested in one of the renowned songs by The Doors referred to as ‘Light My Fire.’ However, her father who happens to be my grandfather was out watching a recently released movie known as ‘In the Heat of the Night’ during that day. Based on the vents on her birthday, one can conclude that my mother is a product of can be referred to as culture vultures. The time dedicated to music and other artworks influenced her to develop a strong interest in literature in her toddler years. According to my grandfather, my mother could only sleep after listening to children stories. That is, she compelled my grandfather to read her stories every night for her to sleep.

            She started her schooling at the age of six, deviating from the common practice of starting school below the age of five (Sharp 1). Her late enrolment is attributed to the school environmental factors that were considered unsafe for children below her age (Sharp 1). Similarly, her father argued that he complied with the government’s rule for schooling which provides six years as the right age for any child to start schooling. In addition to recording good results, my mother demonstrated her athletic talent by participating actively in many sporting activities with her school. For instance, she notes that she started playing soccer when she was eight years old. However, her participation in sports was very poor in primary school due to the discouragements she received from her parents. According to my mother, her father wanted her to become a nurse like the renowned Florence Nightingale later in life. Thus, he often reminded her to dedicate a lot of time to the academics.

            The internal push in addition to low performance in the required subjects influenced my mother to go against his father’s will of becoming a nurse after school. According to my mother, she performed averagely in sciences and recorded admirable results in history and religious studies. Although she had an average GPA, she could not pursue nursing after high school because of sciences. She considered advancing her studies in religious studies, believing it would help her advance the desire for assisting other people in the society. My mother believed that theology and religious studies would allow her to achieve her ambitions in life. That is, she was determined to offer social and caring services to other people in the society after her graduating that took place in mid 1991.

            Prior to advancing her studies, my mother worked in a non-governmental agency as a minister of religion to the disadvantaged people in the community. She also worked as a theology and religious study teacher in two secondary schools before joining college to increasing her knowledge. She achieved her Master’s in theology qualification in 2005. She was contented with her level of education since she has never shown any interest of advancing of her knowledge any further. Probably, she stopped pursuing education and allowed her children including me to have adequate parental care and support.

            According to my mother, she started having serious relationship in her late 20s. She believed that relationships started by late adolescence were successful as they were characterized by adequate intimacy in addition to reliable sense of commitment (Shulman and Connolly 2013). She also claims that the postponing of the relationship lifestyle to late 20s allowed her to complete her education. However, she cited self-understanding as the primary factor that influence her to avoid being in relationship in her early adolescence stage. According to her, she considered it wise to understand her feelings and sexual cravings before falling into any intimate romantic relationship.  

            My father was one of the few lucky men that happened to win my mother’s heart. According to my mother, she filtered all men that approached her based on their maturity and behaviors. Although my father came from a humble background, he had excellent personality traits that caught my mother’s attention. He appeared to be caring, accommodative, and with signs of accepting her unconditionally (Kelly 2014). Based on all these factors, she accepted my father’s proposal and got married in late 1989. As a couple, they were blessed with four sons and 3 daughters. In addition to these children, she has two grandsons. At the age of 51, my mother still leads an active life. She is a religious teacher in one of the prominent schools in the state. Equally, she spends most of her weekends going out with her husband and grandchildren.

Works Cited

Kelly, Anita. How to End Up With the Right Partner, 2014. Web. 14 Nov. 2018.             https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/insight/201404/how-end-the-right-partner

Shulman, Shmuel ans Connolly Jennifer. The Challenge of Romantic Relationships in Emerging        Adulthood. Emerging Adulthood, 2013.

Sharp, Caroline. School Starting Age: European Policy and Recent Research. Local Government    Association, 2002.