Jenny G. Navarro

This is my wonderful mother

Do you know anyone that has experienced so many obstacles, but was able to overcome them because of their children? Well, that’s my mom.

My mom had a hard life. When she was a kid she was badly treated by her mother and father. She had four younger sisters that she took care of because my grandparents didn't. She was very intelligent, but because of her parents not worrying about her education she wasn't succeeding in school. My mom went to school from kindergarten all the way to twelfth grade, but she didn't graduate. As she grew up she hung out with the wrong people and did bad things. When she became twenty-one she started using drugs. She got with my dad and when she found out she was pregnant with my brother, she stopped using. Then one year later she got pregnant with me, and she was working two jobs and when I became two years old she was overwhelmed having to work twelve hours a day to pay the rent so she started using drugs again. My dad was in and out of our lives and never really did anything for us. By the time I was four years old he stopped coming around. When I was six years old my mom found a place where people live to keep themselves away from drugs called a sober living home and we moved there. During that time my mom got with my sister’s dad. It was a surprise when she found out she was pregnant with my younger sister. During the pregnancy my mom had been going to meetings to stay off drugs. It had to have been hard for her to stop after eleven years of addiction. Now she has gone five and a half years without using drugs, and just a few years ago she got her General Education Diploma and has been working at Kmart for two years. Even though she only gets paid eight dollars an hour, she can still support me, my older brother and my four year old sister without any help.

This has been a big influence on my life. My mom's problems have made me think about how I want my life to be. Every struggle that my mom had to go through was because she chose a bad life style. Since she recovered, it doesn't mean everyone can. I'm not going to follow that bad trail because I know now that I might not be able to go back to a better way of living.

Because my mom overcame these obstacles because of me and my siblings. I consider her my hero and I love her.