"And she's been doing it all in high heels"

"And she?s been doing it all working high heels"


I'm in my mother's office and it is 1:06 am. I got here at 6:30 pm, she got here at 8 am yesterday. Ever since early childhood, my mother has worked several jobs. Today, she orders way too much food when we go out, most likely because she never had anything to eat 90% of the time growing up in a 12x12 grass shack with five other brothers and two parents. She's seen piles of dead bodies in religious wars, relatives beheaded for the thinnest of reasons, worked closely with an infamous dictator and his shoe whore, and gave birth to a person she is challenged by, but is proud of it. She worked her way to a country where she has been told by other people who she is and what she is capable of. But she kept on truckin and vowed never to work for anyone but herself. She treats every client and employee she has ever worked with with dignity, generosity, and genuine concern. But she doesn't have time for sketchy and sheltered people.

It is intense to know we are each other's only family. Because of my mother's insatiable need for "success", we are living the most comfortable we have ever had in our lives. And she's been doing it all working high heels.

I am grateful for everything.

My ambiguousness (i'm merely being open-ended) and the mercedes-benz I drive today may give an inaccurate perception of my life to some. But I use it to my advantage. And it makes my mom happy to see me wearing "new looking" clothes and driving a nice car that she bugs me to "take care of". I say, "it's only a car," or , "i'll live through it," if I sit on the bed with my "outside" clothes on. She always gives me a dirty look and a comment addressing my image.

I don't like to get too personal. But she tells me I am a better version of her.