I need the central idea of this text A Mother’s Love

Many of us look at our mothers and see love along with strength; I see success. To my eyes, my mother had always been a very ethical woman, always doing the right things. She would give even when she had little and always smiled, even on her worst days. In my most vague memories, she was a very wise woman who valued and practiced excellence through education. Her vivacious personality made her my favorite person in the world and her outstanding class performance made her my heroine.

Growing up in Burundi without her was a call to adulthood. I grew up seeing my friends receive everlasting love and care from their mothers. Reality did not truly hit me until I was about six years old and I saw my closest friend saunter home with a soccer ball in one hand and his mother’s hand in the other after another day on the soccer field; I had but my own shadow to walk home with. Somehow though, the memory of my mother inspired perseverance. At an early age, I decided I had to amaze her by taking care of myself. For instance, I tried cooking after the soccer game - the worst dish ever made in the existence of humanity. Yet I was not quite ready to give up.

Seven years later, I was thirteen years old living in the South Bronx, New York City. Despite my low level of english language, I had managed to make many typical teenage friends whose priorities were not school, to say the least. Despite me being the kid in school who obeyed all rules and completed all assignments ahead of time, I had been wondering how fun it was when most teenagers spend their nights ‘living young and wild’ at late weekday parties. One fateful night, some friends took me to an adult club on my birthday to have a party. Throughout this particular day I noticed the many unsafe choices my friends pushed me towards, I just kept wondering if my parents would be okay with me doing the same. Before anything, my father's vague voice came to mind, saying something along the lines of “to everyone else she is gone, but in your eyes she’ll always stand higher than anyone else'' ; It empowered me to deny all offers until things got out of hand and I was brutally kicked and punched for not being ‘cool enough’.

I was called unspeakable names and sat at a lunch table all by myself for an entire semester after that day. Isolated from most peers of mine, the dark silent cold corner at the end of high school lunch tables somehow became my second home. My companions were now only those who were reaching for the same stars as myself. Fast Forward a year later and I finally had understood what my father’s saying had derived it’s forever extensive meaning from: if walking the right path ensured my future and made my mother proud, counterfeit friendships came second. Befriending myself with education made me realize my eternal love for learning. I got so comfortable with my decisions that education, maturity and success became my priorities; drugs, alcohol and street life, my allergies -my enemies.