There's a quote I read somewhere that said "it's is up to each of us alone to figure out who we are, who we aren’t, and to act more or less consistently with those conclusions.” While I agree wholeheartedly with the quote, the 'alone' part sticks out to me because I have never once been alone...
When I was 6 or 7, I was in a daycare program for the summer. One day, a little girl came in with a stack of money that she has received from her birthday party that weekend. She was passing it around and I decided I wanted it so I took her money, put it in my pocket, and went on about my business. I don’t remember how, but my dad found out about it. There was a lot of yelling and scolding but the main thing I remember him saying is “I always tell people how smart you are, but now I have to tell them you’re nothing but a little thief!”…Those words cut me like a knife, but from that I learned that bad choices will inevitably change good relationships.
When I was 13 and had a small t-shirt printing business, I got a huge order from our family reunion. I spent weeks designing the template and playing around with all the different word art and color schemes that our amateur software provided. I remember staying up late and hand pressing each t-shirt with a 400 degree pressing plate, I loved every minute of it. When I got paid, my mom said that I needed to split the money with my brother so that it would be fair. My dad said “the hell she does” and handed me my cash. From that I learned, if you work hard, you get paid well...AND you get to keep all the money.
When I was 20 and came from the second semester of my sophomore year with less than stellar grades, I was terrified of telling my dad. I was nervous about disappointing him and I remember sitting there going through everything I had done differently to try and raise my GPA. My dad just sat and listened. He could've just said "go back and study harder!" but he didn't. He encouraged me to get a job, go to summer school, and assured me that I'd find my niche. I did just that, I got an internship, worked 2 jobs, changed my major, and took a full load of classes during the summer. My GPA jumped almost a point and I had an offer for a full time position upon graduation by the end of the summer. From that I learned that doing the obvious thing does not always produce the obvious result.
I could go on and on about the life lessons my dad has taught me. And how appreciative I am of my history and his narration of it, but I won't...simply because he knows me. Besides, words can’t express how much I love and respect my father. His understanding always outweighs his disappointment and our bond is absolute…Happy Father’s Day to the 9th best daddy in the world! (Hey, 9th best is still pretty good, you made a couple of crucial mistakes when I was little or you'd be even higher)
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