Many students may be aware that only about 37 school days remain in the semester. The end of the semester signals not only the cessation of classes, but sometimes a trip home to the comforts of a loving mother.

“When I go home, my mom makes me dinner and we go out and do stuff,” said Leah Hellander, a senior from Stevensville, Mont. “She sometimes takes me shopping for new clothes, or she’ll give me the money to go back to school. We basically just make our friendship of mother and daughter stronger.”

But not all students have the opportunity to visit their mothers regularly, especially foreign students. Leclerc Jean-Louis, a freshman from Gonaïves, Haiti, rarely sees his mother.

“It’s nice during Christmas or any holiday when you go home and your mom makes you dinner, but I cannot do that,” Jean-Louis said. “I know I made the choice, so I am okay with it. But I do miss it.”

Jean-Louis said he talks to his mother about once a month, and then only for about five or 10 minutes.

He said the phone cards needed to call Haiti are expensive, so he and his family don’t normally have time to talk about deeper things.

Andrew Lee, a sophomore from Incheon, South Korea, also does not go home often, though he said it is not too difficult for him because he spent 26 months away from his family serving in the military.

Lee said his mother calls him every few days.

“She worries about my health and what is happening with school,” he said. “I ask about what’s going on with my family and at home.”

Lee was able to go home at Christmas break and spend two weeks with his family while he had laser surgery. He is hoping to go home this summer, but he is not sure.

Jean-Louis is having an easier time this semester because his brother, Berthier, is now a freshman at BYU-Idaho.

“It is better now because I know I have someone here,” Leclerc Jean-Louis said.

“I can just call him and we can talk about things that are happening in the family.”

Family, and especially mothers, can provide a sense of security to their children.

“A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take,” said 18th century Catholic Cardinal Mermillod.

Though leaving one’s mother and family is difficult, it is a challenge that can produce a greater independence in a person and a greater respect for the blessing of good mothers.