When I became a mom, I started to see the world in whole new way. I became more patient, understanding and instead of quickly summing up a situation, I began to think more about both sides of a situation and empathize. While a few of the changes that came from being a parent weren't the greatest, like my new found worry, most of the changes were enlightening. All along the way, I think that being a parent has given me the chance to really get to know myself more and contemplate life from a mom's perspective. Through it all, one of the most unexpected ways that being a parent has changed me is that it helped me become a more appreciative daughter.

My mother was a single mom. She didnt just work one job, at any given time she had two to three jobs at a time while raising my sister and me. When I was very young, I knew she was a nurse but I had no idea what stress and strain she went through as she traveled each moring to her hospital in Spanish Harlem, taking five trains each way back and forth. All I knew was that 5pm was the happiest time of my day because my mother would come home and Batman would come on TV. There was no better combination.

While I stayed with my grandmother all day before I was old enough to go to school, I would sometimes wake up at5am to grab a few minutes with my mother before she left for work. When she finally did come home, she cooked, often grocery shopped, walked the dog with me after dinner, and was the typical mother. I had not one inkling of how exhaused she was, sometimes not getting a day off for more than a week.

On the weekends that she had off, we would bike ride, have a picnic in the park, walk around Coney Island, and go to the playground. I had so much fun I didn't realize that my mother had no money for recreational activites and carefully picked fun things to do that were free. All I knew was that they were fun.