A going-away gift

This post has nothing to do with languages but I wanted to tell you about a going-away gift that I just got from my mom.

My mom is a quilter and has made me two quilts in the past. The first one she made for me is the one that she is most embarrassed by. Personally, I LOVE that quilt, but it was her first one so it isn't as polished and grand as her current quilts tend to be.
The second one she made for me is the most difficult quilt that my mom has ever made. The design is called New York Beauty if you want to look up the design.

This past week I received a third quilt from my mom. It is a one that she has been planning on making for me for a while. This quilt doesn't have a superlative attached to it, like "worst" or "most difficult" like the others, but it is wonderfully significant and meaningful. She used t-shirts that I had collected over the years to make a quilt that tells a story of some of the adventures that I have been on so far in this life.

I studied at the Hebrew University for a year.
I ran the Route 66 Marathon.

I biked from the Texas border, through Oklahoma, and into Missouri (Oklahoma Freewheel).
The white t-shirt is from the Dead Sea Half Marathon that I ran when I was living in Israel.

I rowed crew in college.
I ran the Athens Marathon (running from the city of  Marathon, to Athens).

It is really special for me to get to see all these t-shirts (and more) next to each other. It is also really really special to have a mom who takes the time to put together such a meaningful and special gift for me to take back to Tanzania with me. THANKS MOM!

This is still not the whole quilt!