The Lessons Mother Can Taught - Essay Example

As a kid, I was interested in doing everything.  I was furious with her for not allowing me to pursue my dreams.  Instead, she spent a week with me exploring what I liked and forced me to pick out only three activities, each in a different area of life (sports, music, and art).  “You’re going to need that time for play, honey,” she’d said.  “Always keep yourself in balance.”  She was right.  As long as I followed her advice on this, I was happy.

  As soon as I started filling my time with extra things, I began getting too stressed and had to quit.  My mother also taught me to bend.  My family had a serious financial setback at one point in my life and we found it necessary to move.  My mother spent a day walking around the house figuring out what we could fit in our new smaller home and what needed to be gotten rid of.  Then she held a big garage sale and raised enough money to pay for the move.  When I asked her if she was upset about the changes, she said nothing really changed.

  We were still family and we still loved each other, everything else could be worked around. Finally, my mother taught me to believe that I could do whatever I really set my mind to do.  I told her I would never understand electronics even though I wished I could learn how to take care of my own computer.  She spent another day with me learning how to put one together as a team, but I didn’t pay much attention.  The next day, she gave me the computer as a present and said it was mine.

  The only catch was I had to make it work and she refused to help me.  It took all day, but I did it because I believed I could. As much as I like to complain with the other kids about how dumb my parents are about things, I have to admit my mother taught me some valuable lessons that will help me through the rest of my life.  Instead of killing myself trying to juggle too much, she taught me how to cut out the extras and keep my life in balance.  Instead of allowing myself to get so caught up in the details of life, she showed me how to back off and learn to bend to the circumstances.

  And instead of giving up before I’ve started, she showed me how to believe in myself and my own abilities.