When you think of the word “successful,” who’s the first person that comes to mind and why?

So, I would say my daughter is the picture of success. And she would say me. We are totally opposite, and she is so much more together as a college student than I have ever been in my whole life.

She has been an all A student since 7th grade except one B minus in an advanced math class where she was .5 pts from an A. She won best actress in the state her senior year and had so many medals and cords at grad it was hard to count.

She won a drama scholarship from her high school and a local city scholarship for college. Also, a presidential scholarship from her college and an artistic one as well. She went to the Jimmy’s (Tony’s for hs) and got to perform on Broadway to rep our area. She got 1 of 2 service awards out of 560 hs grads at her graduation with 2000 dollars to go with it. There are more accolades for the end of her hs career, but I will spare you.

She has gotten hired after freshman year to perform (musical theater) all summer and will perform this summer also after her 2nd year in college. She went on a fitness journey and has lost 50 lbs since September through exercise and meal prep. She did this while being in class 30 hrs a week and working 3 mini part-time jobs a week and having rehearsals for 4 of those 7 months, 5 nights a week. Now she is at her healthy weight.

She is the real Wonderwoman.

But she would say the same about me. I have been a single mom since she was 4. I spent most of my savings fixing up her car during high school and taking her to 6 states for auditions for BFA programs. She did like 10 activities when she was young, so we could determine what she really loved. I have worked jobs from business development to food delivery and pet sitting. Not to mention nanny work, personal assistant work, and tutoring and social media – even though I had a Master’s.

I wanted to be there for my kid, so I worked for myself primarily doing flexible tasks and having a few professional jobs here and there. It was important for me to have her be more successful monetarily, career wise, and dream wise than I was. I did not make some of the best decisions in my 20s to set myself up for a career and may not be considered a real success in conventional terms. But I want her to be.

In regards to parenting and pouring into another person, I am up there. Not to sound bragadocious, but raising her has been the best thing I have ever done. I don’t think of myself as the picture of success, but I guess it depends on what it means to the individual. As I mentioned at the beginning, success and achievement involve others. And I feel like the parent of the decade, just by being her mom. She feels the same, but she is the awesome person behind my “success” as a parent.

The only reason I can feel like I have it going on is by looking at my kid and all she has done. Whenever she has been asked to describe her success, she has always mentioned me and in interviews she says: I would not be there without my mom. Wow!

My daughter is the most amazing, driven, and successful person I know, part of it is due to how she has been supported (my mom too was her rock and involved in a huge way in her growth and development). And of course, my daughter’s God-given talent that she has not let go to waste and her insane work ethic. And her willingness to always put her goals above fun and frivolity.

In essence, my kid embodies someone who is a goal seeker and a go- getter, and someone to look up to and take inspiration from. My eyes are so small from smiling so hard. I am so thankful to God that He chose me to be her mom!

Seeing her be such a phenomenonal woman makes me feel fulfilled and accomplished. And I can’t wait to see how far she goes. I will have my mom poms in my oversized leather bag to pull out at any time to cheer her on as she shrinks in her chair.:) She hates when I talk about all of the cool things she has done and besides her website, you would never know she has done them, because she would never mention it to anyone.♥️

~simply

Dee