Connecting with Beth Ann Fennelly’s “Another Reason I Love My Mother”

Despite geographical, cultural, and even political differences, there is one thing that remains constant throughout any situation: moms. Looking back, I found that most of my memories of my mom include some kind of fight, and I must admit that most of them were my fault. I am the youngest of three siblings, but I am soon to be the first college graduate in my family. I’ve entered a crucial turning point in my life, and the fear and apprehension about my future forced me to think back on my life rather than look forward. In these regular soul-searching, future-loathing mediation sessions, I realized just how lucky I was to have my mom and exactly how little I appreciated what my mom did and does for me. And Beth Ann Fennelly‘s essay “Another Reason I Love My Mother” featured in Five Points Volume 17, number 2 was just another reminder.

“Another Reason I Love My Mother” is two lines, one sentence, and fourteen words, and that was all author Beth Ann Fennelly needed to get the message across. Fennelly’s essay isn’t about large, showy, public displays of affection, but about the little things that usually go overlooked and unappreciated. The unique one-sentence format of her essay emphasizes this. Her essay isn’t about the time Mom threw a high school graduation party or made a teary, heart-breaking wedding speech; it’s about the daily note in the lunch box and the perfectly folded clothes in the drawers at the beginning of each week. The ordinary, little things that are constantly present, and the things that go unnoticed and taken for granted; these are the moments that Fennelly’s essay makes us of conscious of as we realize how important our moms were and still are.

In all its one-sentence-comically-unusual glory,  “Another Reason I Love My Mother” compelled me to think about what my mom did for me. Everything she did for me. And I finally began to comprehend just how ungrateful of a child I was and am. This essay instilled in me a newfound appreciation for my mom;  I finally realized the extent of every action of my mom’s had on me, even if it was just as simple as when she “rejects pink M&Ms.”

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