In the kitchen, Mama does her best to encourage Karen. Karen knows she is giving her good advice, but she cannot shake her fear. (Image courtesy of whitney waller, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Scene 2: Breakfast

Walking into the kitchen, she put on her brave face and smiled at Mama. Mama gave back her own brave smile, and then gave her usual first-day-of-school lecture.

“Krana Layala, it’s the start of a new term, today, can you believe it? Time goes by so fast, and there’s always so much to do. You need to eat, now, so you’ll have strength for the day. Life isn’t easy for any of us, and we both know the academics can be hard for you, but you can do them if you try hard enough.

“Like I’ve told you a million times, do you want to be like Tammy, where her mother has to do all her homework for her, or would you rather be like yourself and learn to do the work on your own? You don’t want to have to worry about ending up in an institution. What is going to happen to you when I leave this universe? How are you going to function? How are you going to keep your own home, pay your own bills and read important documents, if you can’t do your math homework or read your homework assignments on your own, now? I want you to be able to take care of yourself, sweetheart. That’s why I push you so hard. That’s why it’s so important to do these things for yourself, now, so you won’t need outside help and you will be capable of providing for your own needs when the time comes.

“You have to do the school work for yourself, to feel good about you! That is what’s so important! So you can feel good inside yourself knowing you understood the work enough to be able to do it on your own. It’s so important to know and feel this within yourself, Kitten. It’s so very important that you accomplish these academic lessons and life lessons on your own without help from me or others. Then you’ll be able to go out into the big world all alone and say to yourself, ‘See, I did it!’

“That’s why I wrote those words on your homework paper in first grade, the words about giving you homework you could do on your own, so you could grow up and be self-sufficient. So you could feel good about yourself. So you could feel the worth of accomplishing something difficult on your own. This is so important for you to learn now, sweetheart. It’s not about competing with others. It’s about feeling the completion within when you have mastered a skill on your own. It’s a milestone to put on your belt notch! Be proud of the fact that you and you alone did something by yourself without me doing it for you.”

Karen knew her mother was speaking the truth from her heart, and she knew herself well enough to know that she would study until she had mastered the academics. She was not going to argue with good advice, so she ate fast and hurried through her morning routine. She did not want to be late for the bus. By the time she finished eating and brushing her teeth, she was exactly on time. The bus would arrive just as she reached the curb.

Original Text ©2021, Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved.