My very sassy older southern sister is very quick to point out that it's a luxury that my daughter gets to come to work with me. She does and I have lunch with her every single day. My mom says I have 'high class problems.'

My mom's one of 13 siblings and they all got six kids and till I was 13 everybody was in Compton.

My parents and my grandfather on my mom's side would travel the earth. They went to Australia and China and they went to probably every soccer game I ever played.

My mom was at every single game I played as a kid rain or shine.

My mom was always pretty supportive. She saw me do plays and she'd always act out the parts I did. My aunt who played a big part in my life was a little bit more reserved because if they don't see you on TV every week they think you must be starving.

To this day my mom's unsinkable spirit is an inspiration to me. For nearly thirty years she's worked at the Library of Congress. Everyone knows Sameha simply as 'Sami.' Along with 500 miles of shelved books her closest friendships are cataloged in that library. They are as much the value of work to my mom as is the work itself.

If I made a list of the people I admire Mom would probably fill up half of it. She could do anything and everything.

Being a working mom is not easy. You have to be willing to screw up at every level.

My mom used to tell me stories at night read books to me - and I read 'em over and over and over again. And you know what I learned from that? I went back and looked at everything - Why do I like reading the same stories over and over and over again? What was I some kind of nincompoop? No - the narrative gave me connection with my mom.

I was born in Texas and I lived there 'till I was 8. Then I moved to the Dominican Republic with my mom lived there for two years and forgot every word of English I knew.