This is a story about one of the hardest working people I know, my mom. For as long as I remember she has always put 110% into her career. She has had many and has made great accomplishments to get to them. My mom has been trying to teach my sister and I that it is very important to work hard for what you want.
From what I was told my mom started working when she was 12 and started buying her own school clothes and necessities when she was 13. She started off babysitting every chance she got, and then went to washing dishes in an old café in her hometown. Once she got old enough she started waiting tables, really bringing in the bucks then…well to her it was a lot as she was only 16 at that point. Soon she graduated High School at 17 and moved to Sacramento where she found two jobs to work at the same time! She was just plain crazy if you ask me.
She met my dad there and they moved back to Oregon where my mom’s family lived. She continued waiting tables right up to the day she gave birth to me! She tried to go back to work for a while but I just couldn’t have it, apparently I screamed and screamed with every person who watched me. So she decided to start a daycare… this was her craziest job yet! Sometimes she would have up to 10 and 12 kids and she said I would literally hang from her shirt and scream if she wouldn’t hold me. With this career option being so challenging she finally found a daycare that didn’t mind my screaming and went to college fulltime. This she loved and eventually I stopped crying so much after about a month.
My mom took every computer class available and majored in business as she thought she wanted to be an accountant (holy boring). Though she loved going to college, she said it was still quite challenging as I wanted all of her attention at night while she was trying to study. Soon my mom and dad realized that we couldn’t afford to live off of just his wages so my mom started working at the college while finishing up her AA in Business. My mom graduated from college in June of 2000 and had no clue about her next move as she realized accounting was not going to be for her.
Soon enough she was back to work…she got a job at State Farm as an Agent’s Assistant. My mom told me that everyone in this office was so computer illiterate that it was meant to be that they found her, as computers were her true passion in college. She eventually studied for her Auto, Life & Health Insurance Licenses and just barely passed the exams. So here she was working fulltime, studying every chance she got, being a mom, a wife, a housekeeper, a cook, and a taxi cab driver! My dad and I had no idea how she did it, all we knew was that we had to go out of town to softball tournaments sometimes to give her a break.
Six Years after I was born, I opened my big mouth about wanting a brother or a sister. Who knows why they listened to me, but they did and soon my sister Natalie was born. My mom worked at State Farm all the way up to the last second. Her boss only gave her four weeks off… this was really hard for her, I saw her cry a lot. So the day she went back to work she gave her two week notice to quit. Mom came back home with her crazy idea to run a day care again. She actually handled this time around a lot better than her fist try. She had again about 10-15 kids at a time, but thank goodness I was in school! My dad still doesn’t know how she did it as sometimes he would come home for lunch and all the kids would be laying down at the same time sleeping. She burnt out on this career choice after about a year and started taking online classes for Medical Billing. She also did this while running a daycare mainly at naptime and when all of us would go to bed at night. She successfully completed this program and got her certificate. She started marketing all the Chiropractors around and after some great interviews; she started billing for them from our home while still doing day care.
Out of the blue, my parents decide to move to Vegas here where my aunt, uncle and cousin live. My mom was able to transfer her billing business as everything was done via fax and email. But finally we were rid of those day care kids! She decided to find a billing job inside a Chiropractor’s office and soon was office manager/billing manager for Dr Foster in Henderson. She still ran her at home billing at night for a while until it phased out.
About 6 months later we bought a house in Henderson to be close to my mom’s work. And if working 60 hours a week wasn’t enough for her, she decided to do at home study for her Realtor’s license. Crazy maybe, but definitely always focused on exactly what she wanted. She passed another horrible State and National test, signed on with Re/Max and worked Realtor Fulltime and Office/Billing Manager Fulltime for 2 years. Not to mention my baseball 3 times a week and Natalie’s gymnastics 4 times a week. She was defiantly at her craziest here… she would have to pick me up from school on her lunch that she already booked a client to show a house, sign at the title company, file at Re/Max office, take keys to someone, Etc. 99% of the time I would still be on the hill when everyone else had already been picked up. I really tried hard not to be mad at her because I knew she was trying her best and that she was ultimately doing all of this to teach me and my sister good work ethics and also so we could have more stuff.
After completely getting burnt out working both jobs she quit the doctor’s office and is now just doing Real Estate. Just when I thought we would have more time with her…her real estate got busier than ever. She works about 18 hours a day, always on her phone or computer or showing houses. She drags my sister and I to her scary vacant houses that I hate! Her clients call her up until midnight, on holidays, and whenever they want…they are ruthless but she is always there for them, I guess that’s why they love her. Our last vacation, over a year ago, we were at this awesome resort on the beach and my mom told my dad that she was taking Natalie and I down to play pool. Little did he know there were a couple public computers in the game room that she logged onto and started working while we were playing. He came down to see how everything was going and caught her. It was so funny!
So from Babysitting to Realtor, I’d say she has done a great job. I am so proud of my mom, she is so amazing to me and I hope to accomplish at least half as much as she has in my future career choices.