Wednesday, August 22, 2007

I'm Getting To Know You Between The Lines

When I was younger I would drive my mother crazy asking her questions about herself.

" Mami, when you where younger what did you want to do with your life?"
" Mami, was papi your only boyfriend?"
" Mami, what where you like as a kid?"

My mother would either ignore me until I got tired of waiting for her to answer and went off to bother my sisters or father or tell me to go do something and leave her alone.

This worked until my teen years when I would sit and wait for her to answer. She would usually dance around the questions or say something so crazy that I would forget what I had originally asked her.

As I got older, I stopped asking.

Recently without me asking mami has been sharing little things about herself.

It has been really great because some of the things she is telling me, are things that I have been wanting to know for years. I have always felt like my mothers life was a great big top secret mystery, and I use to joke around and tell people that my mom was really an assassin or something like that because I knew very little about her.

I finally feel like I know my mother. I am also shocked at how similar we really are but yet at the same time how different we are. When I was younger I use to doubt the fact that I was really her daughter because we were so different. So it is nice to know that we have somethings in common.

Through our sharing sessions I have found out a lot about my mother. Like how funny she is. Some of the things she says crack me up. She was also way cooler at my age then I will ever be, and something that I have known my whole life how incredibly strong she is. Along with a whole bunch of other great, cool, interesting only to me things.

I am so glad that we were able to do this. It has helped me to see my mami with new eyes.

5 comments:

CubanDiva said...

Hey Karla,
As a mother I have experienced those pesky questions. I always wonder should I tell my daughter things about myself. And if I reveal too much then what will she do with that information. I find myself telling her more now that she is older because I feel like she will understand more now. We have so much in common now it seems.
Enjoy your talks with your mother now...write down what you learn from her and about her...so you can share her with your children. I wish I had done that with my grandmother. She had lots of FUNNY and POWERFUL stories to tell me, but I thought she would always be around.
Besos!!

Coco said...

Once we're older, we're able to have a different kind of "relationship" with our moms...more like "amigas" : )
Treasure her!!

Un fuerte y caluroso abrazo.
Bendiciones.

ShoeGirl Corner said...

Karla, I loved this entry! Treasure these moments with your mom. Although my mom did share a lot about herself when she was alive, she still left me with so many questions. She passed away when I was 30 and I didn't have enough time with her. How wonderful that your mother is sharing moments in her life with you!

Caro said...

i understand completely. =)

and your mom really is way cool.

Reese The Law Girl said...

Stopping in to say, hello. :)