Current job description: survival specialist!

I connected with someone from my past on Facebook a few days ago. She will be coming to Germany this week and I have been very excited since then. I can't wait to see my old classmate. I can't wait to get her up to date on the past decade of my life!

But then, insecurity starts to gnaw at my conscience. I start wondering what it is that I will tell her. I want her to be awed. I want to feel proud of all my accomplishments. But the truth is, there is not much to tell. My story since I graduated from high school: I escaped to Germany, had a daughter, got married but my marriage went down the drain in a matter of 2 years. I have tried to study, failed, tried again, failed, worked my butt off, got laid off, got sick, got better, survived 12 surgeries, depression and various hormone treatments, and am currently looking for a job to get out of debt.

As I picture her, I imagine the very first question coming naturally out of her lips: '-so what are you doing now?' Will the answer suffice? -"I am doing my best. I am surviving". She's a successful professional, happily married, beautiful woman. And I? I'm a mom, unemployed, broke and with no titles, just a lot of raw talent and guts (and a big gut!). Maybe she is not all the good things I imagine her to be. Maybe she has had her struggles too and her life isn't as uncomplicated as I imagine it to be.

I don't envy her at all though.

Here's the thing. I haven't achieved much that you can put on a resume. I have grown inside, developed talents for other things that are not academic, such as compassion, faith, gratefulness, resourcefulness, creativity and making food last till the end of the month. I have matured, I have learned to cope with a lot of things, I have had to struggle and fight for every day I have been here. It was my choice to come. It wasn't my choice to suffer. But I would not change any of it. Because no degree in any university can teach me how to survive and grow in the face of need. Nor will it ever replace the beautiful friendships I have made along the way. I know each and every person I call "friend" is worth more than any money I could ever put in a bank account.

And the gratefulness for this recognition makes me think that we have both gone very separate ways in life. I am not any less just because I was taught in the campus of real life. I also have a degree. Here's my title: SINGLE MOM. And every time I look at my little, beautiful, happy, smart kid, I am just as proud of it as anybody would be of their Harvard degree.