I think for the past few years I’ve posted about my mom on her birthday, the anniversary of her death, and Mother’s Day. I wasn’t going to post anything today because I just didn’t really want to focus on it. I wanted to make it through the day without crying, but then I ended up crying anyway (story of my life), so I decided to just do a quick little post seeing as how I haven’t written anything in over a month (if you want life updates, follow me on Instagram…that’s where the action is happening these days).

All I want to share are a few things I inherited from my mom because, given current life circumstances (blog post to come), these are the things I have been thinking about.

1. My pretty green eyes. One of my favorite features. And a feature I inherited directly from my mother. My siblings all have blue eyes in various shades and tones, but somehow I got lucky enough to get green from my mother. Hers were a truer green than mine are, but still…I love that every time I look at my eyes I’m reminded that I am my mother’s daughter (especially since my body type and the rest of my facial features are entirely from my dad’s side of the family…which is not the good side).
2. My love of traveling. As I await the outcome of my recent application to move to Asia (Japan or India) for six months, I am reminded that it was my mother, and her own travel habits, who introduced me to the wonders of traveling. It started with me missing her when she went off to travel in far off places with a group of girlfriends and continued as she introduced me to my first fondue in Geneva and then, for some unknown reason, allowed me to go off and live in Belgium with a random family at the way-too-young age of 14. She was a great example and supporter of travel and I am so excited at the prospect of going to live in another amazing place and I know that is a direct result of her example.
3. My realistic optimism. I have experienced too much in life to believe that things always turn out how I want them to, but my mom instilled in me that things do always work out. And maybe that’s just because I choose to view life that way, but I choose to do so because my mother taught me to. If there’s any legacy worth leaving a child, it’s that.