Mom #5 – Submitted by Brady Baldwin

BEAUTIFUL MOTHER ESSAY CONTEST
NEAMAN PLASTIC SURGERY
Submitted By: Brady Baldwin
Mom: Amy Baldwin

Why My Mother is Beautiful, By Brady Baldwin, age 18

There is a common phrase, that–when pondering beauty–is often offered: “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” One may hear it a thousand times and not really comprehend its full meaning. I believe my mother is beautiful, but I don’t justify this from my own perspective; one need not look through my eyes to see her beauty. Look at her through the eyes of those who behold her every day: the impressionable sixth grade students of Walker Middle School. As their mentor, their teacher, and the inspiration for countless students to explore literature, my mother imparts her beauty in a way that moves far beyond any one lens.

Amy Baldwin is a woman of nearly 50, yet still turns heads in high-heels and tight dresses. She has taught at the fifth and sixth grade level for over twenty years, yet still hungers to show these young students how to love a good book. She has even raised two rowdy boys to near adulthood, yet still retains a reserve of affection and a modicum of patience. For all of these things, my mother has proven her beauty. For waking at four in the morning to run before work, she is rewarded with physical health. For showing true compassion to her students she has earned numerous accolades and inspired countless to become educators and english majors. And for raising her children, she has been rewarded with… well, two hellions, but at least she tried.

The most beautiful thing about my mom is the honest love she has for what she does. With expanding classrooms, dwindling resources and an unruly crowd, many teachers have give up on the endeavor entirely. Not my mother. She has mentored the new teachers to become adept as well. She stocks her classroom high with books and chairs for students to sit and discover a passion they never knew they had. Friends of mine, now seniors in high school, will still look back and pinpoint my mother’s class as the place where their love for reading began. This impression is not unique–An entire West Salem generation has passed through my mother’s classroom doors, and it is only the rare pupil that returns without a book under their arm and a hunger to read it in their eyes.

My mom is beautiful in her compassion, her dedication, and her love for her students. It is my mother who can be found over summer breaks, organizing guest speakers like holocaust survivors, preparing workshops to train her peers in teaching, and buying mountains of books to replenish her stock for next year. My mother is beautiful, but don’t take it from me. Look at her through the eyes of the students she molds into thinkers, and then you will see the full beauty of a woman who cares.