We’re meeting my friends and their moms for a pregame in Le Mans,” I tell my mom. Looking back at me with a clearly confused expression, my mom asked me what a pregame was. My mom graduated from Saint Mary’s College in 1985, and, clearly, “pregames” and New Finni’s were not a thing back then. Last weekend, junior girls coerced their moms into staying up way past their bedtime and waking up well into the afternoon.
In a conversation with a friend and her mom, we compared the similarity between our mother’s disciplinary strategies. I shared stories about having begged my mom for sleepovers when I was young. It was almost always a “not tonight MK” reply in fear of my crabbiness the following day. My friend laughed in agreement, and I was glad to not be alone in having been deprived of sleepovers as a kid.
This weekend, I chose to stay the night with my mom. My mom and I laid in bed sharing stories well into the morning hours – and belly laughing. I haven’t laughed so hard in weeks.
When the bouncer at New Finni’s asked my mom for her ID – and then a second form of ID, I was reassured she wouldn’t stand out too much on the dance floor. Looking around, at one point, my mom asked me how I know all the people in the bar are students. I told her, “Oh we just know,” but then looking harder I saw that not everyone I saw was a student. Upon walking into the bar, my mom’s first reaction was “Oh thank God. Mary (atop the Golden Dome) is watching over you all in this place.” We stayed longer than I had expected!
There was a moment on the dance floor that I stood back and watched each of my friends and their moms. The resemblance between each of them was freaky! It was so cool to see how much love they have for each other. The joy was clearly displayed on every face I saw. My friend Lily and her mom held hands and spun each other in circles. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched them. It was as if no one else in the world mattered, at that moment; at a place none other than New Finni’s.
It’s easy to assume, when we were born, our moms looked at us this same way, but, this weekend reminded me that they still do look at us with the same love. They stayed up all night with us the first nights after we were born, and, this weekend too they pulled all-nighters.
At Saint Mary’s, I’ve found lifelong friends. This weekend I shared those friends with my lifelong best friend: my mom.
Just as I followed in my mom’s footsteps down the avenue in attending Saint Mary’s, I try to be more like her every day. She’s the best role model. By Sunday afternoon, I had lost track of the number of people who told me I’m my mom’s twin. So, resemblance-wise, I guess I’m on the right track to being just like her.