A Thank You To My Father On His 30th Father’s Day

On your 30th Father’s Day I wanted to give 30 “Thanks”. So here we go.

Thank you:

• For raising me to be a good person.
• For teaching me about trees and the bird and the bees.
• For yelling at me when I deserved it.
• For not yelling at me even when I deserved it.
• For hugging me these last 30 years.
• For loving my mother forever.
• For teaching me to love the water.
• For paying attention to me every time I yelled “DAD!” from that water.
• For bringing my brother into this world.
• For making me sleep in the barn that one fateful night when I was being a little shit.
• For allowing me to come back inside once I had learned my lesson because that barn was scary!
• For pushing me to always keep trying.
• For allowing me to play on my computer and the Internet even when I should have been outside.
• For trusting me to not kill myself on a dirt bike when I eventually did go outside.
• For providing our family a roof over our heads and food on the table.
• For teaching me what it means to work for myself.
• For showing me what acceptance was through your words and actions.
• For the long road trips to Florida where I learned the phrase, “You look out your window! And YOU look out your window!” whenever my brother and I would fight.
• For turning down the word “fuck” when I was a kid and turning it up when I was a little older every time we’d listen to “You Oughta Know” by Alanis.
• For always picking me up when I fell down (and taking me to the hospital when I fell down hard).
• For making me hike up mountains even though I didn’t want to.
• For making me hike back down those mountains.
• For driving around in circles on the lake when we’d want to “go again!”.
• For teaching me to love music and for teaching my brother to love it even more.
• For teaching me to “Do what I love” long before WeWork ever existed. :)
• For loving my wife as your own daughter.
• For loving my son with the same love that you have shown me.
• For teaching me to be a father now that it’s my first Father’s Day.
• For being my friend.

I guess what I’m trying to say is… Thank you for being you.