Things My Mom Taught Me

For almost as long as I can remember I've been a tomboy. There was a time, long ago, when I wore a cute little dress to kindergarten class everyday, but then something happened. A pair of jeans entered my life. Along with some hand-me-down T-shirts (hand-me-downs are awesome by the way) and I never looked back. My barbies ended up in mud puddles in the driveway, sometimes in pieces, for days. I still have my collection of Hot Wheels. Early in high school some of the boys in my health class were scared of me in dodgeball. I would rather play Halo or Battlefield than watch One Tree Hill or whatever else it is you people watch.

Now, I did encounter adversity because of my lack of stereotypical feminine qualities. I never encountered this at home though. My brother played catch and pretend army games every chance we got, and living on the farm there isn't a whole lot of time to be a girly girl. If you happen to break a nail chances are you should have probably been wearing your leather gloves.

My mom was always very supportive of me, regardless of how girly I wasn't being. For that, I am very thankful. I don't know what kind of person I would if things had been different. Sure, my mom would get frustrated when I'd cause such a fuss about her fixing my hair. How many of you have moms who, in order to make prom a much less painful event (with the dress and all), let you pick out and order custom Chuck Taylor shoes to match your dress? I'm almost certain the answer is not many at best.

My mom never taught me how to put on make-up. Don't get me wrong, she offered and had I wanted to learn, I know she would have taught me what I needed to know. That's not something I've ever been interested in or felt that I needed. She did teach me many things: how to set irrigation tubes, how to make spaghetti sauce without cheating (aka using the can of spaghetti sauce), how to properly kill a rattle snake, how to lift hay bales (or anything heavy in general) without throwing out my back, how to throw a punch, how to be innovative, and by example how to be self-sufficient and independent even if you only have a little. I still learn things from my mom all of the time. I will be forever grateful for the things my mom has taught me.