It is okay to be the boss

When I was growing up both my parents worked, and in my community that was not so common. I was the first to school, bright and early before the sun came up, then I was the last to leave. My mom would drop me off on her way to work and my dad would pick me up on his way home. At the time, I hated this. I did not like being the first and last at everything. I saw all these other girls getting picked up by their mom and taken out for an after-school snack. I never got any of that, and I resented my parents for it during my school years.

Looking back now, I am so thankful for all those life lessons my mom gave to me. She taught me a lot of things, but I never realized how much until I got into college. She taught me so much growing up, and I can never thank her enough.

My mom embodies the #BossMom. She is the boss, and has taught me that it is okay to be the boss. Women have not always been respected as a boss, and at times it is very challenging to get into those roles. To start, the beginning of her story was difficult, and she constantly went through different hardships. When she was growing up she was told she could either be a secretary or a teacher. Neither of these options sparked her interest. She battled many hurdles during her school years including dyslexia, which some of her teachers refused to believe.

After all those hardships she continued on the further her education and stumbled into the area of computer science. She was one of the first women in this area, and all of her male professors continued to tell her she should change paths. Even with adversaries, she continued to push until she graduated with a degree in the new technology. Then she had to get a job. This was incredibly difficult because she was discriminated against and continually said no since she was a woman. Finally, a University took a change on her. They hired her to lay hardware across their campus to connect all of their computers and generators together.

Soon she got married to my father and everything was looking up, but things took a turn for the worse. My dad was working construction and got into a very bad accident. He was in the hospital and was going thorough experimental procedures to try and fix his injuries. During that time, my mom became the head of the household. She was working, and caring for both her husband, and her grandmother. At her job, she started to get sexual harassed by her boss. During that time, it was not common for a woman to be in the field so he continued to harass her and could not do anything about it. Eventually all of the stress caused her to quit, but she still had to provide for her family.

My boss mom went back to school to get her masters while working a part time job as a software designer with family still being in the hospital. After 6 months her husband finally came home, but he was on bed rest for another year. During that time, my mom completed her masters and supported the household. She got a job at a new start up technology company and quickly flew through the ranks. Soon, she was the manager for an amazing software company.

My dad was finally all healed up, and she forced him to go back to school and get a degree. He followed her footsteps and got a degree in computer science. From there, she helped him get multiple jobs in that field through all the connections she had made. She proved that she was the boss.

In the company she still continued to move up the ranks. She pushed for what she wanted and became the boss. She ran a great team and constantly led them through sales along with working on developing platforms for credit cards. She was on the edge of leading the computer revolution and creating the path for others to follow.

Throughout her life my mom went through many challenges but continued to strive and became the both. She persevered and created a great life for herself and her husband. Eventually I came into the picture and she passed all her stories onto me. She gave me a multitude of advice that allowed me to flourish but, no matter what she constantly encouraged and loved me.

My mom is a big believer in giving back to her community and that is one of the morals and core values she passed onto me. From a young age she encouraged me to give back and constantly pushed me to give back to those in need. Even with volunteering she was a boss. She volunteered for positions and helped to make positive changes in many organizations. She was even honored for her commitment to those organizations. Without her, I would never have had the amazing volunteer opportunities and ability to help support my community.

Outside of volunteering my mother also pushed the value of kindness. She would say to me that “kindness will get you further in life then anything else”. You never know what someone has been through and that is something to always take into consideration. By always being kind, it opens avenues to helping other people in ways you will never know. My mom is always kind to everyone she meets, and never judges anybody by how they look. She instilled these ideals into me at a young age and those have helped me become successful, but also influential.

With my career, I owe it all to my mother. Hearing all of her stories about hardship and all of the hurdles she had to jump over, she showed me that anything was possible. She taught me that it is okay to be the boss. You can still be a female and run the world. To me, anything became possible and I went into the STEM field which as we know is run by men. That will not stop me and I will become the boss.