A good dad encourages his child; he lifts their spirits when they’re down, and he gives great fatherly advice. Then, there is my dad. He is not quite like that. He likes to yell; he called us borons instead of morons, and he loves his chair. But, don’t let that fool you. Though my dad liked to make fun of us and yell, at the end of the day, he loved us and the things he said we understood. It was the "Wicks language"; it was how we spoke. So, here are the things my dad used to say to my siblings and I that are definitely interesting to hear.

"Don’t suck."

Two words I heard before almost every time I stepped foot on the wrestling mat, or stepped into the throwing circle, my dad would say, “Don’t suck.” Those aren't very encouraging words to tell your son as he is about to compete, yet that’s what I heard. What "don’t suck" meant, though, was, "do well." It didn’t mean that I usually did suck, and now shouldn’t, but rather it was a way to calm my nerves and make me smile a bit before going out.

“You’re a boron!”

A household favorite. Boron: a big moron. Over and over again, my dad would call my siblings and I "borons." Boron became just a laughable term and a joke. When we did something or said something stupid, boron became the typical term we used. If you went a day without Dad calling you a boron, something was probably wrong because it was used often.

“That’s (insert whatever "that" was here) for babies and Irish men.”

Whether it was complaining, whining, something stupid, wearing a coat when it wasn’t that cold, really anything negative, it was for babies and Irish men. I have no idea where this came from. I do know it wasn’t uncommon and it was always funny to me that it was babies and Irish men.

So, thanks, Dad… I think. Though they were weird (to say the least), the words we heard from my dad always had meaning. He always has something sarcastic to say and some way to insult you, but he also has some “wise” words. Those are three of my favorites that somehow manage to insult, encourage and toughen you up all in one.