My Father’s Daughter~
Where to began when expressing such boundless adoration for a father the quality of mine? Bias? You bet’cha. A starting place is at best illusive when you are attempting to grasp hold of the beginning of a lifetime of memories, moments and mischief. For starters, he will enduringly be the first man I have loved (no bellyaching boyfriends & husbands, you don’t have your own holiday, now do you?) unyieldingly (except, maybe, during adolescence, there could have been some yielding then).
You were (ahem! ‘are’) the coolest cat in the room and I was like pure putty in your hands. To your young daughter, you were the pinnacle of awesomeness. My life’s work was to spend as much time with you as humanly possible, like the ‘cool’ factor was contagious. One noteworthy assumption, is that I was fortunate enough to have a dad who was there, not just physically, but really there. Engaged with me. Questions of attentiveness and attention simply didn’t exist. That fact alone, deserves much celebration this day in age.
Puberty has a way of turning your world upside down and as teens will do, I pushed (broke) every single line that existed (why did there have to be so many!). Now, the unyielding force shifted from my idolization to my dad. He was stalwart in guiding, suggesting and well pushing me down the ‘right’ path all while handily trying to teach me how to be Miss Fix-It-Yourself around the house. If I had a dollar for every time I heard the “if I teach you to fish…” euphemism I would have had a highly trained personal chef by now, cleaning and scaling my seafood for me.
After a few “dark years,” my Father’s Daughter resurfaced and not only had the cool dad once again, but could also evenly hang a picture on the wall without using a leveler. Much of my interests and hobby’s stem from exposure (thanks Pops) and lots of seed planting. The love of live music, the love of traveling, the love of the beach and all its sand and the addiction to endorphins that one can only find when accompanied with a sweat. A young woman has come full circle and like before, to ‘hang’ with dad like the “good old days,” is all I need some days. In honor of my hero, my rock, my friend, my dad.