I consider myself lucky to have someone that determined and diligent in my life. Someone so goal-oriented that it would discourage anyone that would try to thwart his or her plans. She has always been a beacon of resilience in my life and I am eternally grateful for that. She is my care-giver and my rock. This woman has made me value the concept of reality and the world for what it is. My mother has always been my symbol for hard work.
It may seem a bit clichéd but I stand my ground when I say my mother is the very birth of my inspiration. My mother was actually the starting point to my fascination in obstetrics/gynaecology. How? My mother had to wait approximately 10 years before she could give birth to her first child, me. I decided that from the very moment that I found out how long it took for me to be born that I would help various women that had the same problem like my mother. When I told her what I wanted to do, she looked at me with so much pride that I knew that I would do anything to help that dream come true for the both of us. She continues to give me so much support for that one career that it’s all I can think about.

My mother is, in my books, the very definition of hard work. From the very moment that my father retired, my mother took the role of the official breadwinner. From that moment, our mother-daughter relationship faltered a little, but I understood. She had to go to work every weekday, at some point in time, she had to go to school to get another degree for a promotion that she was aiming for. She is also a public figure in my church and occasional church trips and anniversaries had to be planned that required her attention.

Even with all this, she has to pay my school fees, pay for our regular vacations and the money to be spent during those vacations. She may not have enough time to spend with me but she always shows me what it means to be a woman and how I am meant to cater for the family that I am bound to happen. She holds a lot of expectations of me and hopes for a lot of things regarding me. She says it is because she told God what she wanted in a child and she knows that what she asked for, God would provide. My mother feels the need to be a mother to everyone. She has a generous soul. A soul so generous that she puts people’s needs before hers.
Truth be told, I would have never discovered my love for medicine if it hadn’t been for her. I would have never understood what life could be like. She showed me what it meant to be in another world where no one cared where you came from. Yes, she was a bit skeptical when I told her that I wanted to go to a school that took over 10 hours to get to but she knew that I wasn’t going to have fun and ruin my chance to make her proud of me. No, she knew it was to better myself and show that she raised a remarkable individual that would help lives everywhere.

I once told her, “Mum, you should stop putting so much pressure on me.” She answered, “You are my daughter. I know what you are capable of and what you are not capable of. I’m not putting pressure on you. I’m merely informing you of what I know you can do.” After that day, I never complained when she ‘pressured’ me. I would merely look at it as a source of encouragement. She’s not the most original person to use as the basis for my essay but to me, she is the true meaning of an independent great woman and I am thankful that I got someone so influential in my life.