Happy Mother's Day FOG!

[Guest]

For any of those members who are possibly mothers or those who love their own, Happy Mother's Day!

A mother, like a father, is a role that is taken on, not a description of the act of birthing you(although it is common for the person who does to also do that other stuff). Whether biological or someone who raised you, what are some of the lessons you've gotten from your mother?

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One of the most important things I've learned from my mother is "Remember who you are." Before sending me off to school, she would always tell me that and as I got a bit older, I used to think it was a mom's "worry thing" because of the implications of peer pressure and remembering who I am in spite of what someone else might convince me to do/try. As I've become an adult, almost 30 now, I've realized the core value of the saying, as I have allowed myself to truly forget who I am and where I've come from over the years. Something you take for granted until you actually find yourself again and realize what you've lost and been missing. So, for that, thank you mom.

On a lighter note, when I was a toddler artist, I had a real issue with drawing on the walls. Even up until I was 10 years old, fixated on putting my mark on the blank canvas of our homes. I remember one time drawing a cryptogram on the outside of our then house in Italy, in metallic blue crayon. The first two letters resembled the first two letters of my name but when shown the marks by my irritated mother, I denied making them or knowing of their origin. She at one point said, "I know it was you! Look, it even says your name!" And my response was, "No, that's not my name! Tch! It saaaays..."   My mother used to smack my little hand and yell at me, forcing me to bawling tears for drawing on the walls of our apartments, turn around to grab something to clean it with only to turn back and find I was back at it again, unable to resist the call. Now, all these years later, she and I paint murals on people's walls for a living. I was trying to tell her this was gonna be a huge cash cow; if only she'd listened sooner!