I love my mom! Words can’t fully describe what she means to me and how much she loves me and my younger brother, but I’ll give it a try:
My mom and dad immigrated to the US from Taiwan in the late 80’s. They wanted their future children to have a “better life”. I don’t know what Taiwan was like back then, and my parents don’t talk about it, but I garnered that there was some sort of strict military rule at the time.
In Taiwan my mother was chief accountant at a big electronics company. When they moved to Virginia she didn’t know English, so she couldn’t continue being an accountant here. Despite the disadvantages of being an immigrant, she was always optimistic and gave 100% effort to making sure our family had a comfortable life. Her accounting skills were crucial in managing our small family budget and helping us save. She also maintained a full time job while taking English classes and raising two children.
She believed that the key to success in America is education, so her mission was to put me and my brother on the path to success through school. Throughout my preschool years I would wake up in the middle of the night and see her tirelessly studying English books, underneath a dim pink desk lamp in the single bedroom our family shared. Even though her own English wasn’t strong, she taught me how to read and write the alphabet when I could barely talk, and bought me dozens of books. Because of her intense involvement in my early education, I grew to love reading and learning. She never had to push me academically in later years like the other “tiger moms”, but she did have to limit our video game time or else my brother and I would play all night.
My mother has been completely supportive of me throughout my entire life. When I wanted to take piano and ballet classes, she found the best teachers and drove me to lessons every week. My high school was an hour and a half away from home, but she and my father would still drive me when I was late (which happened more often than I would like to admit), and pick me up after my extracurriculars. Picking your kid up from school may not seem like a big deal, but it meant a LOT to me because my parents have a very hard work ethic – they had to in order to provide for us. During my high school years they both had two jobs in order to save enough for my college tuition, and never took vacation. To this day I almost can’t believe they were able to accomplish so much because I struggle a lot with the one job that I have now!
Fast forward to my college years when I decide to drop pre-med and pursue a career in art. My mother was just as supportive then as she has ever been. She didn’t really appreciate art, but she believed in me. Every time she heard about an artist on the news, she would tell me about it and say, “See, if that person can be successful (at art) so can you!”
This is my THANK YOU to the most important and inspirational woman in my life. In celebration of how much my mom gave to me, I’m giving you all a FREE illustration. You can print it out, color it, hang it on a wall or give it to your mom!
Directions for download:
- Follow this link to the product page in my store: http://mjhsu.com/product/free-mothers-day-2015-coloring-page/
- Click the “Add To Cart” button
- Checkout (the price is $0 so you won’t be charged anything)
- You should see a download link after checkout and in the confirmation email.
Enjoy and Happy Mother’s Day!
