I Would Have Given Anything to be Like...

This week, authors all over the blogosphere are celebrating the recent release of Kirstin Hubbard’s Like Mandarin. I haven’t read this one yet, but I’m excited to get my hands on it, and plan to do that soon.

In Like Mandarin, 14-year-old Grace Carpenter would give anything to be like 17-year-old Mandarin Ramey -- the bold, carefree wild girl of their small Wyoming town.

It is my belief that we all have a Mandarin in our lives, or at least, we did when we were kids. I moved around a lot, never stayed in one place long enough to envy one particular person over another. But I did have a Mandarin. When I was a teenager, there was no one in the world who was more amazing, more beautiful and talented, and perfect (in my eyes) than my mother.

She worked hard, she laughed often, and she loved life, even when it was difficult. My mother once told me that the only person who can make me happy is me. And that one statement has been one that has stuck with me for my whole life. She told me that I make my own happiness, and never has she been so right. At fourteen years old, my goal in life was to be just like my her.

It’s been a long time since I was fourteen, and my mom and I aren’t as close as we were back then. Though we look alike, I am not just like my mother the way I once wanted to be. But her wisdom, her drive for creativity, and her zest for life have been ingrained in me, helped me to become the person I am today.

Yeah. I had a Mandarin when I was young. Thanks Mom.