My first soulmate. My first comfort and my first home. Now I understand how your heart aches when mine is aching. I understand your fear as I went off into the world, barely glancing back. I understand how your heart would have swelled up when I soared and how it would have broken when you wanted to give me more, but couldn’t. I understand how you sacrificed your body to bring me into this world and how it will forever be marked and changed because of me. I feel your cringes as you look in the mirror and quickly remind yourself that it was all worth it. Now I see that you did get sick too, but you never stopped. How could you? Your heart didn’t beat for yourself, it lived for us. I understand there would have been days where you wanted to succumb to the exhaustion but we were your greater good. I see you now. I understand you now. Mama, you etched your love onto my heart from the moment I came to you, and it only spread from there, lacing my veins with such a power that no matter the distance between us, I will always feel the love of my first home.