While Patti was out of town this weekend, i had asked if they would pick up the obligatory father’s day card for me to deliver today to my dad. They came home last night and showed me the card. It read
-Dad’s help you reach your goals one “you can do it” at a time
Didn’t seam like a huge revelation at first, but the more i thought about it, that card pretty much hit the dog nail on the head. I can honestly attest a lot of my best qualities from my dad. Things that i notice about those who i find myself trying to work with who have different work ethics. My father taught me about truly working hard. He would spend countless hours working from sun rise to dusk out in the heat outdoors supporting his family. He always put his best effort in everything he did. He didn’t quit just because it was 5 o-clock. It wasn’t done until it was completed. Looking in hindsight i can see how these attributes have passed on. He always would strive for excellence.
He also taught me about the importance of supporting your family not just in providing but in being there for them. One of my most profound memories was during high school different organizations would have BBQ’s. Being in a handful of organizations myself, there must have been one at least once a month that i was involved with. Dad faithfully would be awake and out of the house before the sun was up making hundreds of chickens with the other dads. Now i find myself finding ways to help with patti’s kids school activities.
Going back to card though, what i probably owe my dad the most for would be for his constant encouragement. He would always encourage us and never put us down. He always let us join as many after-school activities as we wanted (even though it probably just meant another bbq he would have to help) When i asked for my first computer he supported me. It was a Tandy TRS-100 512k ram, 80MB hard-drive (yes MB!)
I can only aspire to follow in his footsteps in my own household. I want to be an encourager, i want to be a hard worker and i want to be supportive of everything these kids chose to take part of.
Thank you dad for everything you taught me.