From the feedback I got was that I need to include more how my mom affects me in the present. Also to not just talk about my mom and her struggles but to explain how she overcame then, like who inspired her.
Second Draft
“I feel like I’m strong because I was capable to raise my girls. I feel very independent.” Those are the true words of a good single parent. Cristina Alvarado, or like who I like to call Mama or Mami, has showed me throughout the years that single moms are strong and can be very independent. Being a parent is hard enough, but being single is much more complicated, but my mom has fought against all odds.
She came from Mexico when she was 19 years old with her brother and my grandma. When she arrived she enrolled in school to learn English during the day, and worked as a janitor at the Police Department at night. She mentioned that not knowing English was a struggle and admits that it still is. At school she met my dad and got married, soon after they had my sister. By then my mom had stopped going to school. Three years later they had me. Seven years into their marriage they decided to get a divorce. I was too small to understand what was going on. I was only three years old. We had to move closer to my grandma so my mom could work full time and my grandma could take care of us. My mom had to work extra hard and yet she had time to volunteer at my school, take us to Girl Scouts, and drama classes. After a couple of years my mom got pregnant and when my little sister was born she was diagnosed with the Turner Syndrome. I felt horrible and so did my sister and family, but my mom was the one that kept us together and told us that everything was going to be alright. She said she felt bad and guilty. She recently told me, “I had to be stronger because I had to confront the situation and make the best of it.” Her optimism is also something I admire about her because I think that if other people were like her and thought the same way that she does then the world could be a better place. She has been put in situations that have forced her to make hard decisions. In a regular husband-wife relationship they have each other to lean on, but with a single mother they don’t have that. Single moms have to make those decisions alone and worry if they’re making the wrong ones.
There were so many things she did that shaped my principals. She has taught me wrong from right, good and bad, but the most important thing is that she has given us the best example of what strong women are.
There are millions and millions of women that are in the same situation that she is in and are struggling day to day. My mom is a good example of someone going against the odds and, in my opinion, to the day is doing a pretty good job. When my sisters and I grow up and we are struggling we can look back and see how my mom surpassed everything and see that we can go through anything. She has made us stronger. But not just my sisters and I can look up to her; anyone in the world that is going through a similar situation can too.
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