Mommy: Mentor, Inspiration, and Magician by Keturah

Mommy: Mentor, Inspiration, and Magician by Keturah - September 2013 Scholarship Essay

    My mother was born on December 4, 1969, somewhere around evening time in a hospital in Detroit, Michigan. She was the first of my grandmother’s children to be born in an actual hospital instead of a living room. Her childhood wasn’t the best, but it shaped her. It shaped her so that, now she could shape me. And shape me she has.
    I know most people would probably pick a teacher and principal for this question, but I just couldn’t. It’s not that I haven’t had some inspirational teachers in my life that taught me an awesome trick on dividing faster or remember the characteristics of life because I have. However, my mother has taught me way more valuable lessons, academic and otherwise.  
    My mother is my most inspirational academic role-model because she taught me how to get an education no matter what the environment or teacher. At first, like any child who heard her mother tell her something strangely profound, I was a bit confused and just brushed it off. Parents are crazy, right?
    Her lesson was covered in dust until I aged a little and being intelligent because something I became ashamed of. My classmates called me a nerd for reading so much and not allowing them to see my answers on a test. I cried. I couldn’t understand why I was so different and why it was so wrong to be that way. My mom, who was my ultimate confidant, never told me that I shouldn’t be that way. So one day after I had cried in my mom’s arms, she repeated her words from years before. And this time, I understood. That summer, I finally learned how okay it was to be intelligent, to love to read, and to simply just be me.
    School started back and I was better. Every morning I used her lesson to motivate me to be the best that I could be regardless of who opposed it. My main purpose was to outdo myself every day. From then on, that is exactly what I did. I still do today. From chaotic classes to teachers who refuse to teach, I still come home more accomplished than I was yesterday. In a world where a diploma and degree could make you or break you, that is the great academic lesson of all and I owe it entirely to her.