The Best Day

 The Best Day is a song from Taylor Swift’s second album Fearless. In the song, she sings about growing up. It screams nostalgia. She sings about how school is hard, and how life is so unknown, but she had the best day with her mom. The biggest takeaway from this song is that you don’t appreciate your mom until you don’t have her around all the time. Till you move away from home.

The thought that comes to mind when reading this chapter is my mom fit into so many of those categories. My mom turned 40 this year and I would say Facebook is her favorite platform. She posts quite a bit on it. My mom and my aunts all love it and are keeping up with things on it. I have nine aunts by the way so like to say they all are on it is quite a feat. I mostly use it to keep up with my family. When I left for college, I started using it more to see what my family had been up to. I come from a large extended family. My mom is the oldest of eight and my dad the oldest of four. Both sides of my family meet weekly for a meal, one on Sunday and the other has been coined Monday night. We say things like, “Are you coming to Monday night?” It took my fiancé a bit to get used to the term. Not all my aunts and uncles are local, but most of them live in the Dayton area. Anyways, the point is I would watch Facebook posts from family members to keep in touch with people.

first day of school

Christmas

I think it’s interesting that as a kid being posted on social media was an accomplishment. When my mom posted an achievement I did on Facebook it meant that she was super proud of me. She was willing to show all her friends the thing that I did. Now looking back, it is a cringe worthy reminder of random things I did as a child and growing up. Obviously, what I’m going to do is look back on some random Facebook posts from my mother. The first one is from Christmas around 2020. My mom’s side of the family does a white elephant gift exchange every year. I don’t remember why I was making this face, but I’m sure it was justified. Second, this photo is from a different Air Force Marathon. I’m not sure exactly what race we did. The little dude in the photo is my little brother. He’s in high school now so not so little anymore. The one in the orange is my grandpa. He does marathons every other weekend and has always supported me in running. Next, this is a photo of me and three of my younger siblings. This was the first day of junior year. Yes, my hair is purple. My hair has been most of the colors of the rainbow over the years. Lastly, me during Halloween dressing up as a power ranger. I was obsessed with power rangers as a young person. From around age 5 to age fifteen Power Rangers was my show. I remember my dad bribing me to go to the dentist with watching the Power Rangers movie afterwards. 

Halloween

running