Father’s Day is coming up. I’m currently not a father in the traditional sense. I do have some cats and dogs and a couple of ducks, but I would feel like a fraud if I were to claim that qualified me for some kind of gift. Being said, I will never turn down a gift for any occasion, so we can just say it’s a present that I might happen to get on a particular Sunday in June.
Of course this makes me think of my own dad, who spent the majority of my childhood showing me the wrong way to do things so that I would stay occupied and out of the way, and now seems confused why I show no appreciable skill in fixing things around my house. I did manage to replace a heating element in a dishwasher last weekend, which I think he was proud of in some small way.
The next day we went out and bought a new dishwasher. I’m not going to say those two things are connected.
I used to think that my dad was constantly disappointed in me. I was always a good student, but on the few occasions where I made a bad grade, I felt my dad took it harder than I did. Of course, I always knew why I got a bad grade; I was likely just uninterested in the project or didn’t study enough. But he always expected better of me, and when I just want to move on, he would make sure I understood that I should work harder next time.
Looking back, I think he was driven to see me reach greater heights than he had. He worked hard from a warehouse job all the way into an executive role, but he wanted me to get a jump start on that – make good grades, get into a good college, and find a good job. I managed the first two, but then I chose radio. However, I’m doing the job I set out to do and loving it, so I can’t say he thinks I’ve failed at that either. One of these days, I might even learn to change the mower blade on my own.
Happy Father’s Day everyone!
