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My mom and Diet Coke
I don’t know how to call it, and addiction or a passionate story; diet coke for my mother has been water ever since I started gaining memory. My mother’s love for diet coke is something real, funny and very demanding. Demanding as in she can’t stand different brands or even different diet coke types. She would always buy 600mL Mexican diet coke in a bottle, not a can, never a can. And it’s funny because I can describe my mom as a constant person; she hates change. But despite her unchanging nature she would change her Diet Coke’s companion now and then. When I remember myself as an infant I see my mom, a cigarette and her Diet Coke. She quitted smoking when I turned 9 years old so after that Diet Coke was accompanied by gum; she’ll always have gum and her 600mL Diet Coke. She changed gum for mints, mints for bars, bars for peanuts, peanuts for apples, even apples for water! (At least acknowledging water could balance her daily diet) But her Diet coke was always there. Don’t get me wrong, she is a very healthy woman, has a vegetarian regime, works out and even ran half marathons. Her unbelieving love for this product is a surprising contrast with the rest of her daily life interests. My unchanging mom will buy 3 Diet Cokes a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year for 20 years. That’s right, 21840 Diet Cokes throughout my existence. I've even been tracking inflation in Coca-Cola beverages over the years thanks to her; I remember how 6 years ago she would give me exactly 7 pesos and 50 cents to buy something that now costs 11 pesos; but she would always have the exact change. My mom is like that, she doesn’t need much to make her happy, her Diet Coke is her safe routine; her dose of coffee for tough mornings, her alcoholic substitute for social night outs and her excuse to get together with a friend and talk for a while. She doesn’t need much. Ironically, we, the remaining five members of my family, do not drink any kind of Coke. My mom has encouraged us to drink healthier products, even though she refuses to stop drinking Diet Coke. Now that Coca-Cola has released its innovative advertisement campaign my mom will enjoy a new way of drinking her Diet Coke, and that is to share it with somebody else.
