WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD
“Good things come to those who wait. Good things come to those who work their asses
off and never give up.”
While
belated, I wish my dad a very happy 46th
birthday!!! I’m not really sure how to praise my dad on such a special day
or give accolades to such an important life and prominent figure in my own
life, but I guess I’ll start by sharing what my dad has taught me…besides how
to flip the bird J.
#1: Work hard. If
I’ve learned anything from my dad, it’s that you must work hard. Nothing comes easy but the things that come
to you as a result of hard work make the effort worth it. There are/will certainly be days you want to
blow off and it can be frustrating to watch other people slack off around you,
but a strong work ethic not only leads to high reward, but great passion for doing
what you love and what is right.
#2: There is no right way to love. There’s a running joke in my family that my
dad is the most charismatic person in the whole entire world…to strangers. I have people approach me each time I’m out
and about in Charlotte (and sometimes on plane rides from New Orleans?!?) about
my dad. They recognize me from our
uncanny resemblance (minus the graying beard and zip off cargo shorts) and they
stop me to recount stories about my dad.
Sometimes they’re stories from high school and college, my dad’s “glory
days” as they call them, and they talk about his wild, fun love for life and
disregard for rules. But other times
they’re stories about my dad’s adult life, times when he has helped them to
build something or other at their house, lent them tools from his vast
collection in our garage, or made them laugh at some (what I’m sure was an
inappropriate) joke. Regardless of the
setting or the person, each story has the same underlying themes: your dad is
kind, he’s helpful, he’s funny, and he’s been a good friend. Well, if you know my father like I do, you
know that he’s not a big hugger. He
doesn’t say “I love you” each night before we go to bed and sometimes, if he
really isn’t expecting you to touch him, he tenses up. (I type this laughing because I do the same
thing…people really should warn you if they’re about to infringe on your
personal space) Anyway, he’s not the
typical affectionate dad. He’s the kind
that walks 5 paces ahead of everyone in our family but holds out his hand
behind him for us to reach out and grab so he can pull us along with his
unreasonably fast stride. He invests in scare
the crap out of you and show you how truly physically weak you are before you
go to college “self-defense” classes so he can rest assured that you will
be able to protect yourself when he’s not within arm’s reach to protect you
himself. He’s the kind of dad that will
drop everything to come get you when your car has been “stolen”, anger-free. He’s also the kind of dad who laughs off a
brutally car wreck in our own driveway in which the driver (WHIT) backed his
truck into my dad’s truck. I repeat
myself: IN OUR DRIVEWAY. He doesn’t
smother us with hugs and kisses but he is an ever-present source of love and
caring in our lives that seems somehow stronger than any other love I’ve
known. So maybe it’s unconventional, but
who am I to say it’s wrong?
#3: One can never have too many shirts. Nuff said.
#4: Be happy. Take
everything everyone says with a grain of salt and then do what you want to do
anyway. There’s no way to please
everybody so just do what you want. Be a
good person and try to do the right thing, but do what you love. Make your own life and your own family and
your own kind of happiness but at the end of the day, go to bed having proved
something to yourself. I like to look at
my dad’s life and think that he’s ended up exactly where he’s supposed to
be. Sure, his job his stressful and
everyone in our family is 14 different kinds of crazy, but he gets to go
fishing on the weekends, he has fat, cute dogs, and children that are healthy
and here. So hats off and drinks in the
air for you, dad!
Love ya. Miss
ya. Mean it.
Kane
Watch it with the 14 kinds of crazy:)
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