Who do I Admire?

I found some errors in the original post, so I updated it and resent it.

When thinking about people we admire, it is easy to look at those who are famous.  When we look at famous people we often overlook their weaknesses, failures, or quarks.  Instead we only consider their achievements.

It is easy to overlook the people right next to us, because we do see the their failures and their weaknesses.  This can blind us to their bravery or achievements.

I have a great admiration for my mother.  She has overcome circumstances that would cause many people to give up or fail.

I was born four days after her 17th birthday.  She was still in high school at the time.  She could have dropped out, but she refused to quit and graduated with her class.

She married my father who was a soldier in the Army.  She was still a teenager when we moved to Germany for the first time.  When we arrived all of the housing units on base were occupied, so we lived on the German economy.  My father was not available most of the time and my mother was on her own.  As a teenager she was stuck in a foreign country, with a baby, unable to speak the language, no phone, no international drivers license,  no car, no TV, had no knowledge of the culture, and had no social support or family to help.  There are a lot adults that could not handle that situation.

When I was older my mother decided to go back to work.  She quickly learned that if she wanted a good job she would need a college education.  She signed up at a local college and was given a placement test.  It had been a long time since she went to school, so she had to take a lot of remedial classes before she could take any actual college classes.  It took an entire year for her to finish those classes.  If she had decided to quit, I don’t think anyone would have blamed her.  However, my mother is not a quitter.  She took all of those classes and was ready for college.  She got her Associates degree and a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree.  She not only struggled through a year of remedial classes, but she also attained a higher level of education than most people will ever achieve.

I admire my mother, because she never quits and has great determination.  This allows her to succeed against all odds and accomplish things that people with fewer obstacles in life will never accomplish.

I have great admiration for my mother.