My mom can’t fly. She can’t bend a steel beam into a pretzel. She can’t shoot lasers out of her eyes (sadly).
Despite all that, I’m convinced my mom has superpowers. How else could she have experienced all that she did in the last year (cancer and divorce) and still be standing? I know that if I had experienced even half of what she did, I’d have probably collapsed in a heap, unable to take one more step. But somehow she trudged on, using her superpowers to stay upright and to even get herself to a better place than she was six months ago. While that might not be as hip as flight or invisibility, it’s still pretty damn impressive.
Know what else is impressive? She worked for over 20 years as a waitress, scraping by on less-than-minimum wage and crappy tips, and still managed to support my younger brother and me. And we never wanted for things. We had clothes, we had food, we even had toys we didn’t need.
When she’d had enough of that life, she went back to college (she’d had to drop out of art school when she got pregnant with me) and got a bachelor’s degree, which she put to good use as a community counselor helping at-risk kids. She got sidelined for a while and had to put her career on hold, but she tried to stay positive, even when it was incredibly tough on her.
Then the cancer popped up. But guess what? She beat it. She’s been in remission for almost a year.
And even though the divorce was the worst kind of surprise, she didn’t let it stop her either.
She’s eyeing grad school in the fall. I’ll bet she beats that too.
Even after all that, you might not believe my mom has superpowers. Maybe you just think she’s a really tough woman, determined to stay strong and not let life’s stumbles pull her feet out from under her. To you I’d say: you don’t think that’s a superpower?
Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.
