Day 16: A picture of someone who inspires you

Ok so again I am back at it..... trying to keep up with this challenge. At this point I have abandoned the everyday blogging, especially because I am mid-thesis writing and extra writing is almost too much for me.

Someone who inspires me....

Me & my momma

My momma. Claudia Ann Collins. She's inspired me in too many ways to count....I hardly know where to start. When I was little she made my life so much fun and exciting because she always had an art project for me to do, a song to sing along to or a place to visit that opened my eyes up to the world. Yearly visits to art museums, arboretums, the franklin institute, wetlands institutes, American girl doll fashion shows, GOLD (aka girls overnight leadership development) and daily runs to the local rec fields and schools for sports- she did it all. My life was so full of activity and excitement and I owe it all to her.  She's such a smart and strong women- graduated college in 3 years and got her master's at UConn, and she definitely set the bar high for me.  In between all of her amazing maternal talents she has overcome heart problems and beaten breast cancer and she even teaches ESL at a local school. Like I said, she's supermom.  Now as I am about to defend my thesis and graduate with my master's it really brings me back to what has fueled my interest in higher ed and a lot of that has come from my mom. It's exciting that as I grow older I see that we have more things in common (seriously, right down to our handwriting) and when I look back at pictures of her when she was 25 we look strikingly alike.  All in all, I am just thankful that she is my mother and she helped me get where I am today. I really don't think I would be where I am today without her.