What My Dad Has Taught Me Over the Years
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What My Dad Has Taught Me Over the Years

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What My Dad Has Taught Me Over the Years

Dear Dad -

As a man, something that comes across as important to me is the relationships I have with other people. Whether it’s with my friends, my family, my teachers/classmates, whoever it may be, I find that the way I treat people has a major impact on the person I am each and every day. Despite how selfish I can be and how much I want to accomplish everything for myself, I know that the best thing I can do is to work with others and treat others with respect. One person who has heavily influence this perception that I have on relationships is my dad, who has been married to my mom for over twenty years and is employed as an insurance broker for an international corporation.

I was raised by both my mom and my dad in a Saint Paul suburb of about sixty-thousand people called Eagan, which is small enough that it would not be well-known outside of Minnesota. Growing up in Eagan was a very pleasant experience as my neighborhood was very safe and I had several friends who only lived a couple of blocks from me, and I have fond memories of night games, block parties, and water-gun fights. I went to a nearby high school that was rank as one of the top public high schools in the state of Minnesota, and I was able to live a very comfortable lifestyle with my family and friends. The reason I was able to this was mostly because of how hard my dad and mom worked to provide for me and my sister, with my mom working part-time and my dad full-time.

My dad in particularly worked his tail off as he would work at least eight hours each day and would travel nationally and internationally for his work, and would often leave for several days at a time. My dad and I didn’t always have the greatest relationship growing up, as we would have our fights and differences like most father-son relationship normally go. My dad was heavily motivated to make sure that I would grow to be an independent, kind, caring individual, and would go out of his way to make sure that I stayed in line with what he wanted for me. A lot of what I learned from my dad not only influence the person I am today, but was a key factor in all of my accomplishments/successes. Part of the reason I am writing this article is that my Dad’s 50th birthday is coming up on the nineteenth of March, and I would like to show my dad what I have learned from all of his teachings. I would also like to write to celebrate my dad’s influence in my life, and the difference it has made. So, without further adieu, here is a list of the top three things my dad has taught me over the years.

1.Appearance/Style Is Crucial to Success

Something about my Dad that sets him apart from a lot of other dads is his fashion awareness. When most people look at my dad, many of them comment on how impeccably well-dress he is or how sharp he always appears to look. Since my dad is very well-versed in making fashion statements and takes fashion very seriously, it kind of came as odd to me when he wanted me to start taking it seriously. My dad would watch fashion shows such as Project Runway with my sister all the time, and would often times read books and go shopping to color-coordinate tops and bottoms together and what so ever. One of the funny things I always tell people about my dad is that when it came to what my sister and I wore, he would yell at me more for being fashionably off or for looking weird, and then make me change what I was wearing.

While most stereotypical dads would probably yell at their daughters for wearing something too “reveling” or inappropriate, I got yelled at for being lazy about fashion or looking like a slob. This not only happened to me on schooldays, but happened to me on holidays, family gatherings, and friendly gatherings and even on lazy Sunday mornings. While I have seen my dad on his fashion “off-days”, which he will hardly ever admit too, he wanted to emphasize to me that maintain a “good” appearance is critical to success in all aspects of life. The reason that I try to dress to impress and try to look “fashionable” on a daily basis has a lot to do with the habits that my dad has emphasized to me since I was a young boy, and has definitely helped me when it comes to work and other social gatherings.

2. Put Your Head in Trenches And Work When Things Get Tough

If my dad has given me any piece of advice that has helped me, this one is for absolute certainty is the most important piece of advice. My dad has not only showed this through his words, but also through his actions as well. I cannot express how many times when I was playing football, wrestling, or track and being in the band that I wanted to quit, but I was always encouraged to keep working hard and to stick it out. My success as an athlete, band student, student, and overall person would not be possible due to this particular skill that I have developed from my dad, and I have been grateful for this piece of advice nearly every day. Through the way my dad treats his work, his passions, and his relationships with people, I have learned that giving up on something that can be fixed is a waste of time/talent, and that hard work goes a long way to accomplishing your goals. While I am still working at trying to achieve all of my potentials in life, I find that working hard has always been a good basis from which to build off of, and has diffidently served me well in life so far.

3. Organization, Organization, Organization!!!

I have to admit, after writing this down, this one topic led to a majority of fights between my dad and me. It would drive him up a wall every time I lost something, whether it was my cell phone or the milk cap, and he has told me countless times that I need to write things down or organize things in a way I understand. While I am still struggling to follow this piece of advice, as most people who know me could state with annoying anguish, he has definitely made it something that I am willing to work towards in the future. While my friends at college are spending more time yelling at me for losing things than my dad currently is, it has always stuck in the back of my mind how ticked off my dad got every time I lost something. While me promising to my dad that I will not lose anything anymore would be like if President Obama announced that he will be entering into the NBA Draft next year and hopes to play with Steph Curry on the Golden State Warriors, I can at least give him the benefit of the doubt in knowing that I am working to get better at it, and I hope that it will be less of an issue in the future when I have to take on more serious adult responsibilities.

Through everything that I have learned from my dad, there is one important thing that I got from all of this. While I learned a lot of important skills that are necessary for success/”Survival” in the real world from my dad, that is important to me is that my Dad actually cared about the person I was becoming. While he wasn’t always there to see or hear about everything that is going on in my life, he put in every amount of effort I can to make sure I develop into the person I am today. He isn’t the perfect dad, but I wouldn’t trade him for any other one. Now that his 50th birthday is nearly in sight, I would like to give a salute to my dad for putting in all his work in raising my sister and I. Now that I am an adult and my sister nearly is one, I want my dad to know that I will always appreciate his advice. This article is for you dad, and for everything you have sacrifice over the years for our family. Thank you for not quitting, ever.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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