To my Dad

Reasons why I am grateful to be your daughter:

You taught me the importance of looking people in the eyes. That when you do that, they will respect you for respecting them.

You taught me that being a girl doesn’t mean I can only do “girl” things.

          Our first of many charity walk/hikes

Thank you for teaching me how to hike and fish. To throw a ball and not be afraid to catch one. For coming to all my Karate tournaments and being the most embarrassing/loud Dad out there. Thank you for being so proud of me no matter what I was doing. Except for letting me raid your closet that year in High School. You should have stopped me. But you didn’t. You just asked if I needed your belt to go with your pants and shirt.

                        

Thank you for always listening to me.

You showed me how to listen to others and really look at things from both sides. ( My Hubby gets annoyed that even if I agree with what he is saying I can always find another alternative. But, deep down he loves it. I think.)

I learned that the open road is your adventure waiting to happen. That Disneyland was fun, but had nothing on hiking the Grand Canyon for the first time when I was 8 years old with you leading the way.

                         No, we did not hike the Grand Canyon dressed like that. Those were our looking good for the camera, fanny pack included, outfits.

You taught me that even though not everyone is perfect, we are all deserving of forgiveness. Weather that lesson was intentional or not, it is invaluable.

Thank you for all the mornings I would wake up and find funny and sometimes sweet notes from you hanging from my door by a piece of string. Even when I became a surly teenager and that door was locked, there was still a note.

                             

I learned that a Dad is the fastest, strongest, smartest, funniest, most embarrassing, giving, understanding, accepting person a little girl will know. And that she will grow up to finally fully understand and appreciate all these things and hope her Dad knows that she feels this way.

                            

I love you Dad. Thanks for being my teacher and for all the life lessons you taught me.