The most influential woman in my life would easily have to be my mother. she has influenced me in so many ways and is always there for me as a mother should be, but she goes above and beyond the call of motherhood. My mother has helped me through situations and puts up with everything that my siblings and I put her through; I am extremely happy to say that my mother is the most influential person, let alone woman in my life.
Growing up I always had a great relationship with my mother. When I was young she was the mother and the father figure in my life, due to the fact that my dad wasn’t there. I came to her to talk about everything, weather it was a mother and son talk or a father and son talk. When it was a father son talk she did the best she could to give me advice from a male’s point of view. I can recall a pretty funny time when I asked my mother a question that a son would you usually ask a dad. I came up to her and asked her “ mom how do I get girls to like me?” She smiled and laughed a little and said, “maybe you should ask your brother”. I responded by telling her that I already had, and he told me to call them baby. She burst out laughing and said, “ see that’s why your brother doesn’t have a girlfriend now.” After she stopped laughing, and she then said, “just be yourself and they will come to you. You’re a smart, handsome, funny young man; if they don’t like you for what you are then they aren’t the girls for you. I looked at her and smiled and walked away. She instilled confidence in me from a young age and always told me I could be or do whatever I set my mind to. I still carry this with me today. She made me more confident and I thank her for that.

My mother always made sacrifices for my other siblings and me. She would go without, so we could have, and she always did it with a smile on her face. Growing up, we didn’t have much, but we were happy with what we had. Because we realized that our mother was a hard working single mother of seven who did everything for us to the best of her ability to made sure we had all of our needs and some of our wants. I can recall when my mother was laid off work just when the rent was to be raised and it was around Christmas time. My brothers and sisters and I realized that there would be a very small Christmas or no Christmas at all. I caught my mother crying one of these nights and asked her what was wrong; she said nothing while her face laid in her lay with her hand covering her eyes. I then told her everything would be fine and we understood what she was going through. Then I asked what was she going to do. She said she would pray and because God can make a way out of no way. I said okay around a week later it was Christmas. We did as we usually would on Christmas we put up the Christmas tree and put everything on it but there was nothing under the tree. I woke up the next morning to the sound of my little brother and sister laughing and playing with toys. I went down stairs and asked them what was going on and they said Santa came. I looked over at my mom as she stood there smiling at my brothers and sisters as they played with their new toys. To this day I have no idea how she did it, how she was able to get everything that everyone wanted for Christmas. It had to be God because a week later she got a job that was better then the job that she had lost in the first place.

I have no idea how my mother was able to raise all of us on her own. She has always been there for me through everything. When I was younger I decided that I wanted to play basketball and take it serious. She was behind me all the way. I remember when she would go outside with me to work on my game through heat, the cold, and the rain in order to get me to reach my full potential at that game of basketball. There was a thing at my middle school called intramurals. She would wake me up every morning at six and take me to the gym to shoot from 6:15 till 7:30 and she would have to be be back at home to put my siblings on the bus at 8. She helped to become the player and person that I am today and I am thankful for it.
My mother influenced me all my life. She was there for me every step of the way; it made no difference if it had something to do with school or sports she was there for me. With that being said she knows what my hopes and dreams, and she will do anything to help me reach them.