A Thankful Father's Day

I'm blessed that Father's Day is an exciting time for me and I'm not even a dad. It's exciting to celebrate one of my best friends in life. He also seemed to have strategically been born in the month of June too, so he is able to milk out the whole month. He doesn't but could totally pull it off if he wanted.

A Mutual Respect

One of the things that I most respect about my dad was growing up, he treated me like an adult. Even when I wasn't. If I ever made a decision he didn't 100% agree with or wouldn't choose for himself, he never tried to impose it on me. There were exceptions to that rule if I wanted to do something unsafe or extremely irresponsible of course but he always respected whatever decision I made. He knew he couldn't always make decisions on my behalf so he let me take more control of what I did from an earlier age. When I moved to Chicago, I'm not sure how he exactly felt about it but supported me and traveled up to Chicago (with mom) to help me move. Even with other decisions I've made, he gives me the benefit of the doubt that I know what I'm doing.

Unwavering Calm

One thing I have personally is calm. I don't really freak out or get bent out of shape over anything. I definitely get that from dad (and he most likely got that from his dad). Even if I was in trouble, he rarely yelled at me but I didn't feel any less in trouble. In more dire straits, he would be the first person I would call because I knew he would calmly take in the situation and not unintentionally worsen what I was going through by getting bent out of shape. Whether it was me getting in a car wreck (or two) in high school or when I was caught in the middle of a shootout when I was in Chicago, he was the first person I would call. Mom knew if I was out somewhere, called home and immediately asked for dad without any hesitation, she knew something was probably up.

A Good Listener

I'm not much of a phone talker at all but I could probably pick up the phone any day of the week with out any reason to call dad and talk for at least an hour. He's always been a good sounding board for anything I would be experiencing - good or bad. We've had many conversations walking the dog around their neighborhood in Owensboro or staying up late in a good talk while hitting a ping pong ball around our the table in our garage. I firmly believe good conversations start with good listeners and he's definitely that. I hope that I'm that way too for my wife and (eventual) kids.

There are a lot of other things I could most likely go on about here like his sense of fair play, good ping pong skills or handiness fixing things around the house but I won't for now.

It's just a long way of telling my dad "Happy Father's Day!" He's earned it.