Me Mum is Thee Best

I know some awesome moms, but no one beats my mom.  This woman rocks and I can’t thank her enough for everything she did for me during my last week in the States.  She has done so much to solve my petty and, often times avoidable, problems.  To the point, I literally wouldn’t be where I am right now (as I write this or post it).
Where I was while writing is a plane en route to Incheon via Chicago.  I may have done the upfront work to get myself here, but my mom has been in the background helping make sure everything fell into place since I signed my contact in December.

She’s helped with all the logistics of moving from paying for the truck and its gas (as well as the gas in her car) to reminding me to find moving help to packing and keeping me on track while packing.  I’ve never neither had so much help packing nor needed so much help packing.  This has proved a monumental task which I wasn’t completely up to on my own.

My mom arrived the evening before I moved out of my apartment in Milwaukee.  I still wasn’t done packing, despite starting the process five weeks earlier.  This is what happens when one tries to work full-time, see a city of friends, and pack.  She didn’t seem surprised, but after returning from seeing a movie with a friend, she helped in whatever way she could.  I appreciated the help then; and I appreciate it even more after my final 24 hours Stateside.

I have never been so burnt out.  Packing a year’s worth of clothes into two checked suitcases and a carry on (despite the size of my carry on) is ridiculously difficult.  While I had all my clothes in these three bags when I left Milwaukee, I neglected to pack any shoes and toiletries.  I unpacked everything a couple days after returning to my hometown with the intention of repacking it shortly thereafter.  However, shortly thereafter turned into the night I was due to leave.

At 9:30pm (five hours before my mom and I were due to leave for the airport), I was sitting at the kitchen table, looked at my mom, and asked if she’d come back to Grandma’s with me to help me finish packing.  I’d like to think she said ‘yes’ simply because I managed to ask for help and not because I was on the verge of tears…the first of many times in the coming hours.  Like six days previous, she was awake with me at the wee hours of the morning, helping the best she could.  She created another backup of the files on my laptop, folded freshly laundered clothes, and filled my travel toiletry bottles—a couple hours worth of work.  Even if I hadn’t needed her help with the former, I certainly needed the moral support and motivation to keep packing.  I kept wanting to cry in frustration and exhaustion; Mom wouldn’t let me.  She kept telling me to keep going and to push through.  I couldn’t fail.  Not in front of her.  Not when she’d done so much to ensure I got what I wanted.

If my failure at packing in a timely manner wasn’t bad enough, at a crucial time I also temporarily forgot where I put the car key.  (I’m seriously cursed when it comes to car keys; I have this nasty habit of putting them places where they become irretrievable for a time.) My mom was putting my winter coat into my suitcase—per my frustrated, teary eyed request—and asked if there was anything in my pockets.  I rarely keep anything in my winter coat pockets, so I promptly responded, “No.”  Wrong answer!  Ordinarily this wouldn’t be a problem; we’d simply open the suitcase up and remove the key from said pocket.  It was Friday the 13^th though, so retrieving the key wasn’t so easy.  The zipper got stuck and the clock was pushing 3:30am.  Ergo, we DID NOT have time for this.  After several minutes, the persistent threat of tears, and the power of teamwork, we succeeded.

Beth messes up yet again (with a car key no less), and Mom saves the day because apparently at 23-years-old, I’m still not to be trusted with a car key if the vehicle’s owner is around.

As previously mentioned, this fiasco with the car key happened just before 3:30am.  I wanted to leave closer to 2am or 2:30am.  3am was the latest I wanted to leave my hometown because my flight left at 5:50am and the drive to the airport is an hour and a half.  Departing at 3:30am left me very little spare time before my flight.  My mom, being the rock star mom she is, got me to the airport with almost an hour to spare, helped me check in my luggage, and saw me to security.

As I said before, “I literally wouldn’t be where I am right now” if it weren’t for her.

Everything above still doesn’t include my mom giving me free-reign to her car for almost a week, so I could come and go as needed and run all my errands; the fact that she scheduled my dentist appointment for me; that she’s willing to front the costs to ship me stuff that wouldn’t fit in my suitcases; and a dozen other things.

As I’ve hopefully and clearly illustrated above, if it weren’t for my mom being the fantastic, supportive person she is, I’m not sure how I would have completed all my packing and done everything that needed to be done in order for me to make it to South Korea.  Even now that I’m in South Korea, she’s still being phenomenal by staying up late to track my flight until I landed and taking care of the leftover financial things in the States (taxes, final paycheck, etc).

I can’t thank my mom enough for everything she’s done.  She knows how much it means to me to live abroad and she’s done more than her share to ensure that dream became a reality.

Old and New Meet Nature Throughout South Korea

Reasons Why I Love My Mummy

Moms are superhuman considering everything they do and how little appreciation they’re shown.  For as much as I love and admire my mom, I still don’t show her the appreciation she deserves.  Thus in honor of Mother’s Day (and all the headache/heartache I’ve put my mother through), I decided to publicly pay tribute to my mum by listing 10 of the reasons why I am eternally grateful to have her as my mama.  These are also reasons why I’ll forever love her, despite sometimes having our differences.

1. She’s My Biggest Supporter.  Who else would spend every soccer season for a decade and a half sitting in the wind, heat, and the sunshine, thunderstorms and even flurries watching me play soccer.  In all seriousness though, regardless of the decision (including those with which she didn’t necessarily agree), my mom supported me.
2. She Spoiled Me.  At a very young age, my mom frequently read to me; she instilled a love of books that I still have today and I became spoiled through that love of literature by always having somewhere incredible to venture off to.  She also spoiled me by moving to district with good schools, so I was privileged to a great education and a wealth of opportunities.  I played a variety of sports, took classes during the summer, had a playground nearby that provided endless entertainment, and participated in an array of stimulating school clubs.
3. She Provides Financial Support.  She, of course, paid for all my childhood activities, always bought me new soccer cleats when I needed them, paid my activity fees, bought me clothes, food, toys, books, etc, but she also helped me out during college.  I grew up under the impression that college would be my financial burden to bear alone; however, being such a big supporter, she helped provide the money to achieve my dreams and goals, specifically studying abroad and graduating early.  Gracias, Madre!
4. She Taught Me Life Skills.  As most moms do, she taught me to be responsible for myself and my actions, to look out for others, to cook, to be polite, to pick up after myself, etc.  Albeit some of her other lessons were a bit unorthodox, such as allowing me to quit swimming lessons at age 8.  Considering this is one of the only things I’ve ever quit, I learned that nothing good comes from quitting and that I needed to preserve through challenges; this lesson wouldn’t have sunk in nearly as well simply be telling me or by not allowing me to quit.
5. She Understands Me.  Unfortunately, I will forever make mistakes, some bigger than others and some with worse consequences than others.  None of this matters to my mom though; she understands that making mistakes tends to be the best way for me to learn my lesson and is part of living life.  She also understands how I think; with one sentence she can make me realize I’ve been lying to myself about a situation or another sentence can take an everyday compliment and make it sound extraordinary, leaving me beaming 🙂
6. She Gave Me My Skinny Body.  I’m aware this sounds vain: I love my skinny, athletic body.  I wouldn’t trade it for any other body type and I know my mom had a similar body type (before her love of chocolate combined with a desk job and slowing metabolism betrayed her).  Despite this, I always take the sentence “you look like your mom” as a compliment.
7. She Gave Me My Best Qualities.  My mother is a strong-willed, hardworking, independent, caring woman.  I admire her for those qualities; I also thank her for passing them along to me.  Coincidentally, these happen to be some of my favorite qualities and the ones that helped me accomplish as much as I have thus far in my life.  Merci, Maman!
8. She Has Faith in Me.  And she sees qualities in me that I don’t necessarily see in myself.  For example, I’ve never considered myself an overly persuasive or motivating person; my mom believes differently.  She also trusts my judgment and professional abilities more than I do.
9. She Allows Me to Be Me.  My mom never pressured me to change who I was or to behave differently.  She let me climb trees in a dress and be the aggressive girl who pushed the boys around on the soccer field.  She also never forced me complete my homework on-time or guilted me for my mistakes.  My mom allowed me to grow up as I was with my outgoing, free-spirit and to have an equal say in what I did and who I wanted to be.  Yes, she’d advise me to listen to my teachers and raise my hand during class, but she never forced me to listen.
10. She Has Always Loved Me Unconditionally.  I’m thankful my mom and I never went through the “I hate you” stage.  This isn’t to say my teen years (high school especially) weren’t a rough patch for our relationship, but she always loved me and was always there when I needed her.  Even when I didn’t deserve her love and attention, I still received it without asking.  Her loving acts still make me cry, especially when those acts include forgiving my mistakes or looking past them :’)

Thank you, Mommy, for everything you’ve done for me.  I know it hasn’t been easy raising me, but thanks for hanging in there and making the most out of the given circumstances.  I don’t know what I’d do without you or who I’d be if it weren’t for you.  I love you!!!

I Love You, Mommy!!!

#1 Reason to be a Great Student

“The best reward for being a great student isn’t the good grade; it’s the wonderful things your teachers say about you.” -Bethany Blount (Me)

My entire life, I was always that student who actively participated in class, asked questions, did the homework, and overall went above and beyond what was expected of me as a student.  Through those 16 years of school, I’ve been called a know-it-all, a teacher’s pet, and even been accused of flirting with my teachers because of my enthusiasm.  I admit as a child, these names and accompanied teasing bothered me, but I never stopped being that student.

Now at almost 22-years-old, I realize why my Hermione Granger behavior continued.  I loved what my teachers had to say about me.  To be completely honest, my teachers (almost) never solely praised me; there was always something for me to work on.  (I appreciate the constructive criticism now because I know my teachers were simply helping me.)  However, while I worked on these aspects of my behavior, I always remembered the compliments and the pleasant—perhaps proud—tone my teachers used when discussing my participation and general class performance.

This realization (of loving the continuous praise from my teachers) started dawning on me in high school when my teachers started feeling a lot less like teachers and more like friends.  My realization fully hit a few days ago when a teacher’s praise was so great that I was left speechless for several minutes.  (Yes, World, I was speechless.)  Even after the initial shock and awe wore off, the best response I could muster was still little more than “thank you.”

Receiving praise from teachers means a lot to me because they’ve been constant all-knowing, authority figures in my life.  I feel as though my teachers signify some degree of respect for me (and other students) when providing individualized compliments.  Teachers also have dozens of students, so me making a big enough impression to warrant a meaningful, individual compliment is huge.  As I’ve befriended teachers, I’ve also developed an appreciation and respect for all the hard work they put in.

And while I’m proud of the grades I’ve earned throughout the years, I’m more grateful for the compliments I’ve received (particularly this most recent one).  These compliments remind me of so much: the positive impression working hard and being enthusiastic can have, what I’m capable of accomplishing, and the fantastic teachers I’ve been so privileged to learn from.

My advice to all the enthusiastic learners is be true to yourself.  If you love to participate in class and interact with your teachers, then DO IT!  (Especially if you learn better through these interactions—like me who doesn’t learn as much passively listening and taking notes.)  I would tolerate the teasing all over again to receive the kind, encouraging words from my teachers.

The years of praise have helped me become the confident, still eager-to-learn student I am, so thank you to all the teachers who supported my incessant need to answer and ask questions during (and sometimes after) class!

Style: Informative
Genre: Tribute

May You Rest in Peace

Rest in Peace Corie Nicole Melton (03/30/1990-03/06/2012) and Edna Ruth Christensen (10/21/1919-03/29/ 2012)

The past month has been a rough one for my family. First we lost my 21-year-old cousin, then my 92-year-old great grandmother. While neither was in perfect health, they both lived good lives and didn’t deserve to die.

I wasn’t close to my cousin; she probably wouldn’t recognize me and I wouldn’t recognize her either. This was due, in part, to living at opposite ends of the U.S.  I remember when we were kids (and saw each other during the summer) that she always wanted to join me, her sister, her brother, and another of our cousins when we played games. I don’t remember if we let her run around with us or not, but if we didn’t I wish we had. Her whole life was still her childhood and meant to be lived to the fullest.
http://raderfh.com/_mgxroot/page_10780.php?id=1040693

I saw my great grandmother more frequently, but we weren’t close. There’s a lot I wished I would have asked her. What was like growing up during the Depression? The World Wars? What did she think of how technology has changed since she was a girl? Even the more personal questions like why she loved birds so much. I’m disappointed to say I rarely remembered when her birthday was, especially considering she sent me a card almost every single year for my birthday. I’ll always remember what a splendid person she was; my great grandma always wore a smile, thanked those who helped her, and welcomed family warmly. She lived a long life and one that I hope she thoroughly enjoyed.
http://www.sonnenburgfamilyfh.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=1436932&fh_id=12367

You will both be missed; and I’m sorry I couldn’t attend either of your funerals. I feel as though I jinxed your lives by leaving the U.S., but I know that God was ready for you both to join him in Heaven. Thank you for blessing us with your time on Earth. May your souls rest in peace!

I love you, Corie
I love you, Great Grandma

A hummingbird carving from ancient Kauri wood, in loving memory of Great Grandma and Corie