I was driving carelessly down a one-way road when my phone illuminated with a text from my father saying “Who am I?”.
At first, I thought he was playing a game since we have such a sarcastic relationship but as our conversation went on I began to notice he was serious. My dad possesses those abilities that make you want to listen to him when he talks. He carries vices and virtues and every message he conveys has an impactful meaning, he has a philosophical touch to him.
My father is also one of the most humble people I know. If he had three dollars and you asked him for two, he would give it to you without even expecting you to return the cash.
Marrying my mum at the age of twenty, they both didn’t have much to begin with. My dad grew up poor, constantly moving since my grandfather was a marine and my mum, who also grew up poor, lived with only my grandmother who worked her heart endlessly as a single mother for my mum and my aunt.
From the beginning of the rest of their lives, my father always made it happen for his family. I remember once at dinner he was telling me a drunken tale and said he never wanted his family to live in an apartment, always a house. He wanted something of his own and he didn’t care how hard he had to work at it and as a stubborn Irish man he kept his word.
When my brother was first born my dad was working two jobs and balancing school to get his A&P degree for aviation. He roughly averaged four hours of sleep each night but still found time to participate in my brothers growing years, being the coach for his baseball team, taking him to ride dirt-bikes as a little toddler, even taking my brother to his job at Panam to see the airplanes up close.
Fast forwarding to when I was born, my dad began to climb his way up the latter in the aviation world. We were fortunate enough to have my dad could work one job and still support us.
Growing up it was the small things my father did that mean the most to me, not what toy Santa brought me for Christmas but those days he would come home from work and randomly tell me lets go junk food shopping. We would come home with only junk food and pig out on Publix sushi and cosmic brownies. The Saturday’s he would tell me to get dressed and we would go to Citywalk and go see a movie and play the water games in hopes of winning a stuffed animal. The weekends our family and friends would go to the dirt-bike tracks and my dad would be with me on the peewee track teaching me even though riding dirt-bikes was his favorite thing to do. It was his selflessness all throughout his years, his grind to work day and night so his family didn’t have too that I admire.
As my father’s success progressed he still never lost sight of who he was or where he came from and I believe that is a strong factor to why he is so successful to this day. Behind the ugly truth of being a boss his heart swells with kindness, under that thick layer of skin lies the best human being I have ever met.
So daddy, to answer your question you are the world’s greatest dad, you are a loving father, husband, and brother who only wants to uplift people. You have given me everything I have ever asked for and that is why I am so set on making you proud.
