When I'm counting my wins I count the time my mother came into the living room with a smile on her face and her phone in her hand. She was so excited to share this article she read with us and insisted we sit down to listen.

Naturally, because we love her and like to see her happy, we obliged. All of us children stopped whatever it was we were doing at the moment and gave her our full attention. Even my father wasn't left out. 

“What is it you want to read to us, honey?”

We were all very curious at this point and listened eagerly with bated breath.

“I stumbled across this article and I found it so relatable I wanted my family to hear it.”

That warmed my heart because whenever my mother is happy, she insists on sharing the happiness with the rest of us. If she buys a delicious snack, she takes a bite and pockets the rest for when she gets home. If she hears about a heartwarming movie, she wants us all to watch it, and if she reads something nice apparently, we'll be hearing about that too.

Now imagine my surprise when she starts reading this article and the words seem suspiciously familiar. I didn't believe it at first, but as she kept reading there was no more doubt about it.

"That's my article" I whispered.

She stopped reading to look up at me.

“What?”

"That's my article." I said again, louder this time.

She frowned and looked down at her phone for a moment before looking back at me.

“Are you Tishala?”

I laughed and nodded. I wasn't sure which part I loved more, the fact that my article somehow found its way to my mother or the fact that she loved it without knowing who wrote it. Either way I was very glad and my family was very impressed.

"Why did you use a pseudo name?" My mother asked sounding slightly hurt. I then realized i was giving the impression that I wasn't proud of my real name.

"I like to be anonymous." She hummed a response like she wasn't totally convinced and continued reading the article.

I smiled and remained silent till she finished, beaming with pride.