mom and me 2013Thank you for having me. Thank you for putting food on the table. Thank you for your sacrifice. Thank you for your love. Thank you for the spankings. Thank you for the hugs. Thank you for showing me what hard work really is.

Thank you for always putting your kids in front of yourself. Thank you for smiling even when we struggled. Thank you for making us feel rich when we had no money. Thank you for letting me stay up late just to walk you to the door. Thank you for never judging me.

Thank you for letting me know there is a god even when things are bad. Thank you for not allowing excuses in our house. Thank you for letting me dream.

Thank you for letting me know everything happens for a reason. Thank you for the basketball hoop you bought me when we should have put the money towards something else. Thank you for calling me your baby boy, even today as a grown man.

Thank you for listening to dad when he said name me Cornell and not Nelly. Thank you for telling me every race deserves a chance. Thank you for showing me that you believed in me even before I started believing in myself.

Thank you for going to the only four basketball games you could ever make in my career, despite working all night the day before. Thank you for yelling at those four games so loud that at times I thought you were on the bench with me. Thank you for making me smile. Thank you for letting me be me. Thank you for keeping me focused.

Thank you for being the toughest human being I’ve ever met. Thank you for sending me $20 in college even when I said I didn’t need it. Thank you for being the best mom I could ever have.

I didn’t run out of thank you’s mom but I would definitely run out of space if I kept going. I can’t thank you enough for all that you’ve done for me. When I send you your morning text message that I love you every day I can imagine your smile as you read it.

The next book I write will have a chapter in it called mom because a couple of paragraphs could never do you justice. I love you mom sorry the text message this morning is late; I wanted to write this first.