In our family, we like to tease each other… a lot!! It’s especially fun to make fun of funny things that our parents say. Some of Dad’s famous sayings include needing to leave extra early to get places because “there could be traffic…,” and needing to keep a close eye on the weather to make sure we don’t get stuck outside on a day where we are “socked in.”
It’s hard to choose, but I think the most important lessons I’ve learned from Dad are to work hard and never give up. He taught us to work hard by example. For my whole life he’s gotten up early everyday to go to work. His job descriptions may have changed slightly with different promotions over the years, but he has been doing essentially the same type of work for almost 30 years! When I think back over my childhood I can’t ever think of a time when we didn’t have everything we needed, and many things that we wanted.
Never giving up was a more frustrating lesson to learn. Since Dad is a Math fanatic, we never had any trouble getting help with Math homework. Even though I also enjoyed Math in school, there were times when I just couldn’t understand how to come to the right answer. Dad would sit at the kitchen table and work with me until I got it. It would be getting late and I would be sick and tired of Math problems… but Dad would still be asking “what does X equal??” Even though I would have been content to just take a lower grade on my homework, Dad would insist that I could learn the material. Now when I work on things I’ve learned to resist taking short cuts and make sure that things get done correctly, the first time.
Thanks for being an awesome dad to all your kids (and your “adopted” kids too)! Happy Father’s Day, Dad!!
