I WAS with my 3 friends hanging around in our school lobby killing time. It was late in the afternoon and the campus was getting quiet. We were talking about our teacher who was a terror because she once tried hitting us during our duty in the health center. ASSAULT!

My friend told her mom about it and said her mom would sue the teacher if she would get physically assaulted. I told them that my dad had another response when I told him about it. He just asked me if my teacher was old (or around his age) and if she was, then he would not be shocked about it. He could relate.

He said people like him and our teacher are really like that and that they would do things (like assault, I believe) just to discipline us. I agreed a bit.

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I did not talk about my mom, but my friend did for me and she said that my mom would have said the same thing her mom said. I just gave her the “maybe” look and gave it a thought.

My mom passed away 10 years ago. I was eleven then.

I did not know if my mom really would have said the same, that she would be suing my teacher if ever she crossed the line. But my friends told me they were sure she would have done the same.

I was getting a bit sentimental trying to remember instances when my mom tried to defend me when I was a kid. I have not really talked much about my mom with my friends. And my friends have not asked me much about her neither. They must have known it would not be a comfortable talk. But today I guess my friends wanted to know.

One of them asked me if my mom was like hers: very supportive, always on-the-go, and makes chika with us. They were keen about my answer, but I was struggling to come up with one, which would only have been a yes or no. They even joked that my mom and theirs would have been close as friends.

I tried to remember her. My mom was always calm. Yes she raised her voice on occasion, but she never shouted at us. I have never seen nor heard her and my dad fighting. She was sweet and loving. She was the best. And all of these thoughts flooded that I just started to get teary and could not stop myself from crying.

Sometimes people would ask me if I miss my mom and I would give them an answer like it is a routine: Yes, of course.

But today was different. I missed her so much. And for the years that I have been seemingly repressing these emotions, I can only look back at the memories that bring me closest to her. Stuff we did together, her photos, clothes, videos of her especially when I hear her voice, her scent, and the dreams of her which I wish I would never wake up from.