I believe in keeping close ties with family.

I remember my mother coming in from a days work. She sat her purse on the counter and plopped down on the couch. She squinted in deep thought and her forehead wrinkled. My sister Kristian and I looked at each other wondering what was wrong with Mommy. How could Mommy be sad on her birthday?

Kristian and I wondered what we could do to make Mommy happy and celebrate her birthday. Her favorite soap opera, General Hospital, was on. It was three o’clock and we had an hour of her not focusing on us. Then it came to us. Since Mommy had just come in from work she must be hungry.

We decided to make her ‘birthday food.’ Due to our shortage on food supply everything seemed to be missing a key ingredient. All we had was bread mayonnaise and jelly. My sister climbed onto the counter and took two slices of bread out of the package. She put the bread in the toaster and jumped off with a loud thud. Mom yelled “what was that,” and we smiled at each other and simultaneously and said, “nothing.” She took the bread from the toaster and I passed her the jelly. We searched the draws and found birthday candles. She put it in the middle of the cut toast. We began singing the ‘happy birthday song’ as she was watching T.V. After the slow and drawn out song was finished mommy smiled, with tears in her eyes, and said “thank you midgets.”

I knew that my mother did not want the semi-burned and poorly jellied toast. It symbolized the love we shared for our mother and although there was not much to make her happy, we improvised and tried our best. That was the only thing that mattered to

her. I believe in keeping close ties with your family. You can always depend on your family. There might be fights but family can always over come them. If I endure a hardship I can always ask my family for advice. They are always there regardless of my flaws or mistakes and even on my “down days”.

Nearly fifteen years later I have just found out why my mother was down on her birthday. She went to college full time and was working a full time job as a nurse’s aid. That day she had taken an exam and she felt that she did not do so well on the test. Work followed; equally or if not worse stressful. Her co-worker had called out of work and left her with eight extra patients to care for. Yet, she was still the best mother anyone could ask for. I am accomplished in my families’ eyes. Keeping close ties with my family is the only reason I feel that I have succeeded. I was shown by my sister and my mother that education is key and college is the key to my success.