Today's Evil Beet Gossip

My Mother’s Day Gift

The conversation I’ve been having, almost daily, with my mother for the past three weeks:

Me: Mom, what do you want for Mother’s Day?
Mom: Oh, I don’t know sweetie, I just can’t decide.
Me: Well, can you please put some thought into it?
Mom: I suppose. I guess I do need a new pair of reading glasses …
Me: Jesus, Mom, can I get you anything for fun?
Mom: You know, it would make me happiest if you’d just save your money for your retirement.
Me: Mother, I save plenty. I’m not a child anymore. I run a successful business today. I can get you something nice. Please tell me what you want.
Mom: Can I just tell you tomorrow?
Me: Sigh.

So, Mom, I’m getting you the fucking reading glasses.

Mom, thank you for reading my blog every day. Thank you for encouraging me, always, to pursue the things I am passionate about, even when those things lead me into a line of work you’re vaguely embarrassed to tell your friends about. Thank you for telling me, for as long as I can remember, that I can achieve anything I put my mind to. Thank you for reading to me daily as a child. Thank you for allowing me to be independent. Thank you for loving me unconditionally, when I insisted on dying my hair black and sporting lipstick to match, when I insisted on wearing boys underwear, when I insisted on moving out of the house, for good, when I was sixteen. Thank you for loving me when I told you how much I hated you. Thank you for sending letters and emails when I refused to contact you for weeks. Thank you for loving me when I dropped out of high school. Thank you for loving me when I dropped out of college. Thank you, Mom, for refusing to buy me Nintendos and trampolines and Rollerblades in exchange for good grades. Thank you for teaching me to value education for its own sake. Thank you for teaching me to embrace my feelings and my sexuality and my words and my thoughts and my dreams. Thank you for never censoring me. Thank you for validating everything about me, no matter what. Thank you for insisting that I didn’t know my own strength. Thank you for teaching me faith. Thank you, Mom, for never giving up on me, for your relentless cheerleading, during the times I had given up, completely, on myself.

I love you, Mom.

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