Growing Closer Through Distance

While looking through my classmate’s blog posts, I came across a post by Laura Skrzypczyk titled “Parental Partnerships.” She discussed how college has caused her relationship with her parents to equalize, rather than remaining “two separate parts of a parent-daughter relationship.” Her post influenced me to think about my relationship with my mother since I have begun college.

My relationship with my mom has always been strong. I believe this is because we have had to lean on each other through difficult times, such as the passing of my father. We have learned to confide in one another for comfort. Without my mom’s support, I do not know how I would have gotten through such a difficult time.

I have always felt a strong maternal bond with my mother because she has always been there to support me. She has done everything in her power to help me find success, and I could not be more grateful for that. Since leaving for college our mother-daughter bond has developed into more of an equal friendship. Over the past year, I have found our conversations to be based around laughter, reminiscing, and understanding. We have developed a better sense of what the other is going through while being apart. This has allowed our relationship to revolve around respect, rather than nagging. Before college, our conversations used to involve my mom telling me what was best for my future. Now that I am in college and more independent, I notice her stepping back and allowing me to make my own decisions. I find myself appreciating this newfound self-reliance while not forgetting my mother’s advice to “think through all of your decisions.”

While in college, I have developed a sense of what my mother has gone through to raise me. I now realize how much of her life she has sacrificed for me to benefit. This understanding that has become clear to me has allowed us to form a friendship. When I go home from school, I find myself spending more quality time with my mother while relying less on her. We have truly developed into equals who understand what the other is experiencing. The physical distance between us has allowed me to discover a new side of our relationship that makes me appreciate her more. Although we are growing as individuals, I feel as though we are now closer than ever.

When entering college, I recognized that my relationship with my mom might face the risk of depreciating because we would be living separately. However, by trying to talk to each other about everything we are going through, we have gained the reward of a strengthened bond.

As the Geneseo GLOBE states, the college prepares students to develop “intellectual and practical skills that transcend disciplinary boundaries and are applicable throughout their lives.” Geneseo has helped me to become more independent in many aspects. Most importantly it has helped me to grow closer with my mom, even though we are now further apart than before.

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