As I thought about who had had the

As I thought about who had had the greatest impact on my life, I began to think of everyone who had been involved in my academic and athletic careers. I realized that I was looking in the wrong part of my life. These people have passed through my life, yet the person who had the most impact was one who affected me everyday. My mother, by far, has had the greatest impact on my life. Her heart and determination are something that I can only hope to have myself one day. I have watched her struggle with running a household while trying to balance returning to college full-time and working a part-time job. I did not realize as a young child what courage it took to take on this workload. Now, as I enter the college scene directly from high school, I cannot imagine how hard it must have been to juggle the everyday work of being a full-time mother as well as the workload of college. She never hesitated to drop everything to rush my brother and me to dance, soccer, riding, or karate. I could always look up from the sidelines of a game to see her cheering me on, while she held an armload of books and tried to occupy my brother.