Sometime in 2009: I am four, and my mother and I are in the car driving aimlessly around the city we once, and still call home. “Telephone” by Lady Gaga and Beyonce is blasting, my mom and I are ecstatic.

“Mom, you be Beyoncé, I’ll be Lady Gaga, okay?”

In English class, I was asked to write about the person I feel knows me best. The answer is no doubt, my mother.

My mother was born into a family of her parents and three older brothers, all of which are significantly older than her. Although she was close with her brothers, her childhood was what she and I like to call, “chronically lonely” as her brothers were out of the house and in college by the time she was nine. 24 years later the cycle repeated itself. Now, I’m the only granddaughter, niece, and female cousin surrounded by four boys who are all, in turn, significantly older than me.

From the time I was born to now, my mother and I have always been close. When I was born, my mother was a single mother working her butt off trying to support us and make sure I had a good life. She gave me a childhood that was filled with endless car concerts to all the hits of the 2000s, professional photos every six months complete with custom outfits and her always being there. Every field trip, school party, room parent opportunity, no matter what it was, she was there.

Our relationship, like all family relationships, have their challenges, but my bond with my mom definitely became stronger after my illness. When I was seven, I became incredibly sick and was eventually diagnosed with 2 rare autoimmune diseases. I spent two and a half months in the hospital doing an endless amount of procedures and tests and taking over ten medications, it only continued for another 6 months.

Although this time was filled with fear, uncertainty and utter exhaustion, it also held endless bonding moments between my mother and I. Spending time building paper castles and doing crafts within the seemingly lifeless walls of a hospital room, holding my hand and singing the Notre Dame Fight Song every time I had blood work done, which was unfortunately often. This time period proved the phrase that she and I have always said, “It’s you and me against the world.”

My mother recently had a birthday in November, and I can only hope that she knows how loved and appreciated she is by everyone she meets, everywhere she goes. I mean it when I say that my mother truly is my idol, biggest supporter, number one fan, drive for success and my best friend, forever.