Dear Mom...

For everyone that’s not my mom you’ve got 2 options:

1. Use this as a reminder to tell someone you love them (because you can never do that enough).

2. Come back next week.

I still have that card you wrote me when I went to Thailand. “Pack up your favorite daydreams and follow a rainbow.” That felt like the biggest love bomb I ever got so I’m returning the favour!

You convinced me to pay like $100 in rent every month because I was being a bit stubborn and then you collected it all and put it in the card when I left.

Who does that?!

I know we’re not the most outwardly love-expressing family but better late than never.

I’m starting to forget the phase where we didn’t get along! It seems so short in comparison now. From what I’m learning about psychology that seems like a pretty normal phase, so sorry for being the normal kid for once. 😂

I don’t even know where to start? Thank you?

Thank you for all the random stuff I took for granted.

Thank you for the epitome of middle class life which seems to be hard to come by for so many people today. I also didn’t understand the treat of living where we did so good choice on that one!

Thank you for never letting us want for anything.

Thank you for sacrificing half the evenings of your life to drive us around to whatever we had going on that night.

Thank you for documenting all of it. I don’t think I appreciate that yet as much as I will in the future.

Thank you for the lack of family drama, I’m learning that one is also pretty unique.

Thank you for giving me the tough love I needed sometimes.

Thank you for letting me figure things out on my own and being the product of my failures. I’m learning this is a pretty crucial thing that kids are missing out on now. My 9 year old self is still mad for having to come home after forgetting to call when I got to a friend’s house after school. I have a core memory of standing in Justin Bruckner’s kitchen.

Thank you for holding your breath while I took a bit of a wonky career path! I’m more convinced that’s the only way to do things now though.

Thank you for always believing in me even if you had to grit your teeth sometimes!

As hard as losing a parent is, everyone has to do it. Losing a spouse is a different story. We are already having fights over who has to die first so they don’t have to live without the other person.

Thank you for handling it so gracefully and without missing a beat for us. Even though I’m sure that wasn’t your memory of it, that’s what I remember. I know there was an army behind you too.

The last words I remember from dad were, “You’ve gotta be the man of the house now.”

Hope I lived up to that!

I love you and I’m probably 25 years late to the party but hopefully you can forgive me for being stubborn. Again!

PS. I’m probably gonna start saying I love you over the phone instead of just talk to you later. Fair warning!