Families: Near and far

Today would have been my mom's 55th birthday. It's weird to think of her being that age considering the last time I saw her was when she was 42. When my dad messaged me today, he made a good point when he said, "we get to remember her as young and beautiful, and not old and wrinkly like the rest of us." While I beg to differ on the "old and wrinkly" part of that statement, I absolutely agree with the young and beautiful part, because that's exactly what my mom was.

It's weird to think what my life would be like if she was still here. I can assume I would be in Europe right now because she'd always said how much she wanted to wait until we graduated college to take us to Europe (although that probably meant more of Western Europe, but you know, minor details). Would I be just as in to photography? Traveling? Peace Corps? While this is something I'll never know, it is still an interesting thought...

Ironically enough we covered the topic of families today in class. We went over the basics (mother, father, brother...) and then got even more complicated (brother in law, nephew- which is the same as grandson) and my personal favorite (lover). When learning a new language that part is always hard for me, especially when I'm trying to kind of break away from the person that I used to be. What I mean by that is I don't want to be known as "the girl who doesn't have a mom because she died when she was little". While I'm sure I'm the only one that puts this label on myself, it still has a tendency to strike up a topic of conversation about my past that I just don't always want to get into. Obviously this is an important subject to learn, but it's never fun, especially when it falls on days like this.

Sticking with the topic of learning new languages, numbers are so hard for me with Romanian! I can count in English (duh), French, Spanish, and now Romanian. But it's always a challenge with Romanian because I really have to sit and think of the translation and as to which language I'm speaking. OH complications!

Well, that's all I have for now. It has been another beautiful day (except overcast)... I think I'm going to go for a photo walk.

cc.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!