The most memorable person in my
life is my father; his actions shaped the path of my life. My life has taken its
course due to his stories and guidance. I grew up all over the world because he
was in the army. My father spent two and a half years fighting in Vietnam. He
had many emotional scars I didn't understand myself until much later on. The
only thing I knew as a kid was that when I ran into his bedroom in the middle
of the night with a fruit basket on my head yelling words like “Di di moa!” he
would roll onto the floor and I would just laugh! He never got upset about it,
my mom on the other hand always got fairly mad, partly because she knew how
this messed with my father and partly because I kept waking her up.
Whenever
I had questions he had answers or sage advice at the ready. It was April 15th
1985 when we had the sex talk; our neighbors had little girls, just old enough
to walk, outside naked. I ran back inside confused, I had no idea what was
going on over there so I asked my dad why they didn't have what I did have. The
reason I remember the date so well is because of his answer, he was always
doing things at the last minute. He answered simply, “Your thing goes in it but
not until you’re married now leave me alone, I’m doing taxes.”
There
were many other things about my father that leave me laughing and many things
that make me proud. After he retired from the military in 1988 we didn't have
very much money. My mother, father, brother, myself, and a German Shepherd all
lived in a Winnebago for 4 months before moving into a motel room and then
finally renting a house. My dad made $9000 that year. His dream was to teach at
MTSU but the Aerospace department wasn't very big and had all the faculty they
needed. He was a pretty tenacious dude
when it came to his dreams though. He wound up writing a couple new courses and
they eventually got approved, he was hired on as an adjunct to teach them. It had been a very long year of scraping by
but we weren't done yet.
My father toiled in factories and
warehouses making what he could to support his family while he waited to get on
full time. Eventually he was hired on full time with the university and then
tenured and is still living his dream to this day. That was a powerful lesson I've always remembered throughout my life, try hard, work hard, don’t take no as
long as there’s still a yes out there. Later on after my many years of poor
choices (which he always stood by me and suffered with me) I decided to join
the military and when I joined the National Guard he not only supported me, he
swore me into service. When my brother joined the military and graduated basic
training, my father was there to pin his blue cord on his shoulder showing he
had joined the fraternity of infantrymen. Later on down the road my brother
advanced his career and became an officer, again my father was there to
commission him into the officer corps.
Throughout mine and all my brothers’ lives he
has always been supportive in all our endeavors, even if he didn't completely
agree. Throughout mine and my brother’s multiple deployments he has been a
constant support for my mother and our families. I honestly don’t know how they
would have fared without him. He tells some of the corniest jokes known to man
but he’s smiling and laughing while he tells them so you wind up laughing whether
you want to or not. He has always loved us so much it was sometimes embarrassing.
He always supported us growing up and he always supports us now, no matter what
we do. He doesn't have an ounce of hate in his heart and he’s never met a
stranger. He has four semi-screwed up sons that he thinks are absolutely
perfect and we have a semi-screwed up dad that we know is absolutely perfect.
