The best gift my mom ever gave me:

When I was 7 or 8 years old, I remember sitting on the bathroom counter while my mom was doing her hair one morning. I sat there, legs swinging back and forth, and told her, "When I grow up, I want to be a fashion designer, hair dresser, writer, singer, Olympic swimmer, teacher, actress, doctor, architect, and... photographer." All at the same time of course. My mom, fastening the last bobby pin in her hair, turned to me, looked me straight in the eyes, and replied, "Okay". Simple as that. Never once did she say that it wouldn't be possible. Never once did she tell me that I couldn't be a singer because I can't carry a tune in a bucket or that I would never be an actress because I was too shy. Never did I hear her say that college for being a doctor would take too long and be far too expensive. She never told me that I didn't have the talent, the money, the smarts, the drive or passion to be any of those things. Instead she said "Okay". And I have never forgotten that conversation. In that one little word, only four letters long (or two, depending on who is spelling it!), my mom gave me permission to be anything and everything that I wanted. And over the years, as my interests have changed and matured, she has been steadfast in her unwavering simple faith in me, and in my siblings too for that matter. Sure, maybe we don't always take the path she would have preferred, maybe being a photographer isn't the traditional route I could have gone, but she has never once told me that it was the wrong one. She offers advice and her opinion, gently hands out motherly cautions, but at the core of it, Mom trusts me. She believes in me. She supports me, in everything. EVERYTHING. That's what makes an awesome mom.

Thank you Momma.

Thanks for giving this little girl ^ the confidence that she could be anything she wanted to be... including a photographer.