Personal Narrative: My Mother

Words: 618
Pages: 3

My mother, Rita Forden, is COO of Corporate Leadership Center, former CEO of Susan G. Komen, and creator of the Discovery Ball generating over fifty million dollars for the American Cancer Society. During her career, she has raised over 250 Million Dollars in support of non-profit organizations. One of her finest achievements was spearheading the push for the Clean Indoor Air Ordinance that enabled Illinois to go Smoke Free. When asked why this was so important to her she replied, “Because everyone said we couldn’t do it - Illinois (mainly Chicago) would never tip. Well, we pulled together a great team and the rest is history.” Despite the many challenges she has faced throughout her career, she shared that her greatest challenge has been that of raising her two children. …show more content…
While that might have been acceptable as a younger child, my mother understood the importance of doing things on your own and building my confidence for future endeavors that would be difficult to complete or achieve.

So, one day when I was doing homework at the kitchen table, I got so frustrated I yelled “I can’t do this - I give up.” My mother, who was in the kitchen at the time, finally had enough. She went to a kitchen cabinet and pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil. She walked over to the table and had me write CAN’T on the piece of paper. Complaining loudly, I did it just to stop doing homework. Instead of her walking away like I expected her too, she had me go to the