It is not easy to be the mother of a traveller.

In a society where girls are expected to stay put, learn how to cook, dress up and hone skills to be a good wife, frequent travelling is certainly not the conventional thing to do. What with the many horror stories that befall on girls who travel, it takes a certain courage and sacrifice from a mother to let her daughter roam and discover the world.

I bet it is hard for her to understand, the mother who spent most of her life at her hometown and only after she got married did she move to a different city, to have a daughter who is only 25 but has lived in four different countries and travelled to a lot more.

It must be hard for her to comprehend, the mother whose life after marriage has always been to fulfill her duty as a wife and mother and spend every single waking moment with the family, to have a daughter who is still flighty as a bird and always dreams of living at faraway places.

It must be hard for her to accept, the mother who left her job to be able to spend more time with her kids when they were young, only to find that when they grow up, they all live away from her to pursue their education and career.

It must be hard for her to appreciate, the mother who never spent a single cent on herself, not on expensive bags nor clothes nor even on good food in cafes, to have a daughter who spends considerable amount of her savings on flight tickets, but never once has she ever questioned her on her use of finances.

All she knows is that travelling makes her daughter happy. It makes me happy. And that is enough for her.

Enough for her to accept the fact that she will have to see me less since I use most of my leave days travelling solo or with friends; enough for her to endure the worry of not hearing from me for a few days when I do not get WiFi signals or any phone reception at all; enough for her to go through the confusion of trying to figure out what time I will be awake when I’m travelling to a different timezone.

And all these mean the world to me.

So thank you Mom for believing in me, for allowing me to do what makes me happy. Even though I have lived away from home for the past eight years, you know that I’m still the same clumsy girl and forget the most basic things while packing. Thank you for preparing your version of travel checklist to make sure that I have everything. Thank you for always looking forward to hearing my travel stories and admiring my travel pictures. Thank you for loving to travel as well and always getting excited for our annual family trips.

Rest assured that no matter where I am in the world, my heart is always home. That when I see some of the world’s most amazing sights during my travels, I always wish that I could bring you there one day. That when I lie down on some hostel bed with gastric pain, it is the warmth of your hug that I know can cure me instantly.

So Happy Mother’s Day to the best mom in the world, my mother. 🙂