Patient [s.m]

2.

"Please welcome, class valedictorian, Santino Mendes." The principal of the university says before applause begins and the podium is handed over to Santino. He looks at us and gives a small smile before clearing his throat. The noise echoed slightly into the microphone and he parted his lips to begin his speech.

"Damn it." Santino says.

He sits on the couch with a notepad in front of him. Several crumpled up pieces of paper are balled around on the floor and I can sense the frustration coming out of him. If he were a cartoon he'd had smoke emitting from his ears.

"What's wrong mijo?" I ask him as I pick up the pieces of paper and place them on the coffee table.

"I can't get the perfect speech." He sighs.

"You want some advice?" I ask.

"I could very much use your advice, ma." Santino tells me.

"As a writer, what's perfect to us is perfect to the reader. What's terrible to us is still perfect to the reader. They can't tell right from wrong - only we can."

"A smart, wise, sensible Pulitzer Prize winning journalist once said, What is perfect to us is perfect to the reader. What is terrible to us is still perfect to the reader. They can't tell right from wrong - only we can. That journalist is my mother, Jasmine Mendes, and she is the reason I am on this stage giving this speech." Santino says.

"My mother encouraged me to pursue whatever it was I wanted to pursue. Deep down inside, I knew she wanted me to become a writer like her, but sadly, I suck at that." There's laughter from the audience and I crack a smile while not once breaking my gaze at my pride and joy. "I grew up watching my mother suffer in pain, which led me on the patch to becoming a doctor. My mother, like many woman out there, suffered from endometriosis. I've seen her struggle with what was her final pregnancy. I've seen her struggle with five miscarriages and the next morning she would still place four plates on the table with breakfast and act as nothing was wrong.

I remember one October she sat my brother, sister and I down and told us something I will never forget."

"Why are we all in the living room?" Sebastian asks Shawn and I. "Are we in trouble?"

"No." Shawn says. "Just sit down and let your mother speak."

"Health is very important, you know that, right?" I begin. Shawn takes my hand in his and kisses the back of it over and over. "Sometimes we get so caught up in other things that we forget to take care of ourselves and things sneak up on us."

"Ma..." Santino begins.

"Let your mother speak." Shawn says.

"I went to the doctor last week for my check up after the miscarriage." I begin. "Today the doctor called back with some results." Bella's chin wobbles and her eyes begin to gloss. "I have ovarian cancer."

"She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at the age of 37. Even when she was in her treatment process, she stayed up with me burning the midnight oil helping me with my essays. My mother is what inspired me to go pre-med, and she is what inspired this speech. She is sitting right here in front of me. I want to thank my powerful mother in front of you all, and I want to thank all the powerful and brave mothers out there for being the driving forced behind all of our goals and aspirations in life. Thank you for pushing us out and into this world and being our first friends, our first enemies, sadly, and thank you for making everything happen for us. Mothers continue to fight the monsters for everyone before they fight their own.