2026 seems to be a year of major milestones. It’s the U.S.’s 250th birthday. It’s the 100th birthday of the mother road – Route 66. For me, it marks 10 years since I finished college.

This is a photo of the moon near dawn on a February morning in 2016. I took this photo as I was heading to an early morning class on campus. This photo is significant to me because it was a few mornings after my mom and I had a fight that prompted me to go look elsewhere to live. I remember looking up at the moon and feeling something deep down – a mixed emotions of sorts but mostly, I remember feeling sad and alone (not lonely). To this day, I can still remember the fight – wanting to watch TV after a long day of school and work but my mom wanted me to continue to work.

My mom and I were independent contractors back then, doing translation work whenever available. The work could be grueling, with my mom in charge of the projects. Sometimes, I would be working 10-12 hours on the weekends, add on another part-time bookkeeping job, and full-time school, you can see why I need to take a break, right?

So, yeah, it’s almost been 10 years since that fight and I’m still here, stuck to my mother like glue. I don’t know how I’m doing it but I’m doing it. As for my mother, she just gets crazier and crazier by the day.

At the end of 2026, it would be 10 years since I graduated from college for the second time. The first time was in 2014 when I completed my first undergraduate degree in civil engineering. I honestly thought I was done with school then. I was ready to go out into the world to get a job and hopefully move out of my mom’s house. Lo and behold, I was back in school again less than a month later.

When I tell people I have two undergraduate degrees, a lot of the times, people would look at me with an expression like, “why?” Why indeed. It wasn’t my goal to see how many degrees I can get. I got my first undergraduate in civil engineering because I was forced. I knew nothing about civil engineering going in nor did I know much more coming out. My mom and her friends ganged up on me and forced me into this major. Never my intention.

The second degree in accounting made a little more sense to me but, again, not what I want to do, even though I am now almost a decade into my current job in finance. What I truly want to do from the get-go was graphic arts – design t-shirts, logos, bumper stickers, posters, etc. In the next life, maybe.

For SundayStills