Thank you, Mom, For Everything

With everybody in the office writing pieces for Mother’s Day, I can’t help but feel inadequate. My mother has sacrificed everything for my siblings and me, persevering through grief and challenges my pen simply cannot capture comprehensively enough.

She raised me while attending law school, often bringing me to Malcolm Hall in UP Diliman after she picked me up. After graduating and passing the bar, she raised me and my two siblings, who were both toddlers at the time, while working as a junior associate in one of the most competitive law firms in the country.

I didn’t see her a lot after she became a lawyer. Though my eight-year-old self didn’t understand it at the time, she was toiling away, working long hours to earn her stripes, solely to provide a better life for our family.

Biggest role model

My mother is unquestionably my biggest role model. Her strength, work ethic, quick wit, and overall aura were things I tried to replicate as I entered adolescence.

Then, the pandemic hit — bringing about unprecedented grief for everyone.

For our family, it came in the form of my father’s passing. Despite losing the love of her life, she overcame all the trauma and pain against a backdrop of fear and uncertainty — a resilience I have yet to see in anyone else I have met.

World has changed so much

More than half a decade removed from the Covid lockdowns and losing my dad, the world has changed so much. I’m now roughly the same age my mother was when she had me. Admittedly, the idea of having to navigate my 20s while raising a son is not only terrifying — it’s almost alien.

My mother is my favorite person. Words cannot express my gratitude and sheer awe for what she has been able to do for my siblings and me.

To see her where she is today, thriving despite everything she’s been through while also giving us the best life she possibly can, gives me comfort and encouragement that I can eventually do the same.

I’ll do better, Mom. For all of us.