Thursday, June 18, 2015

Greatest Achievement

Do you remember the movie My Girl from back in the day?  It was the movie about a girl in the 70s that came out in the 90s.  I'm not really sure why I saw it as a kid -- because its not really a kids movie, but I went to see it and then was excited for the release of My Girl 2 a few years later.

This trailer might refresh your memory as to what movie I'm talking about:


In My Girl 2, much more age-appropriate for me than was My Girl, the main character, Vada, decides to research her mom for a school project.  Her mother died when she was born and so she decides to go to the city where her mother grew up, meet some of her friends, and determine her mother's greatest accomplishment.

After learning all about her life, hobbies, goals, accomplishments, and more the movie has a great ending when Vada's voice over explains that she got an A+ on the report and, the truth about her mother was, "even though it sounds conceded... her greatest achievement was me."

I have always identified with Vada saying that because, even from a young age, I knew I was my mother's dream come true, and I truly believe that I am her greatest accomplishment.

My mom was not a career woman.  She has had many jobs in her life, and she is gifted with a variety of talents.  But the truth is that my dad is the love of her life, and her dream was to have a baby girl.  She has devoted the last 35 years of her life focusing on loving, supporting, and caring for my dad and myself.  She poured herself into me, and I am her greatest accomplishment.

Now, as a mother, I further identify with what Vada says in this movie, because my ambition for my life is my children.  I have never had a desire to take the academic world by storm or make a life-changing scientific discovery or have my name in lights (okay, well, when I was a kid, I dreamed of having my name in lights... but that really hasn't been a dream since about age 14).  The imprint I want to leave on the world is the lives of my children.

I have said to Chris before that it blows my mind that my greatest accomplishment is sleeping down the hall from us.  The way I am going to change the world is still in diapers, or perhaps not yet born.

My dream, my goal, my ambition, my greatest achievement is the lives of my children.

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