By Breezh Nunez, May 11, 2021
What is your meaning behind the term, “Superwoman?” Is it the woman on television who has a cape and flies around catching all the bad guys? Is the term used to interpret a strong woman, who chooses to succeed despite all the adversity that she has faced? Is it a mother who sacrificed everything, including her own dreams, to make sure her child achieved theirs?
I see superwoman every time I look in the mirror. A woman, who pushes tirelessly to achieve success in order to show my son an empowering role model.
I am first a mother, then a student – and my child does a great job in ensuring I don’t forget that. I have spent the entire semester working up the confidence to comment or answer questions in class, and when I finally gain the courage to unmute the mic and speak, I hear my infant son cry out for me. In a split second, I switch from student to mother and the mic stays muted.
At the end of last semester, specifically during exam week, I gave birth to my beautiful baby boy. Since that moment I realized the true meaning of multitasking and am still getting the hang of it. Being a mother and a full-time student is not a walk in the park, but it does shape your character in ways words cannot describe.
As students, we take on the responsibility of completing strenuous assignments and tasks for our classes in order to receive the golden ticket for our future career paths. It requires countless hours of work and brain power to complete it all, despite the added outside stresses one might be enduring. For me, being a college student and a mother seems at times impossible, but I do my best to make it work. In order to make it through my classes, I must follow a strict routine with my son. This includes feeding, playing and putting him down for a nap by a certain time.
While most students despise the campus closure during the pandemic I, as a parent, absolutely appreciate the ability to attend class while caring for my son. I value the ability to attend school from my couch, instead of having the added stress of leaving my son while I’m on campus.
As a single mother, I fight to provide a better future for my son and show him first-hand what a true superwoman looks like. I want to show that with perseverance and hard work, anything is achievable. My goal is for my son to witness his mother achieve greatness, so that one day he will follow and do the same.
