Dear Dad,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been 10 years since we last got to talk. There hasn\u2019t been a day since that I haven\u2019t thought of you, and I find myself speaking of you often even to those you never got to meet.<\/p>\n
First things first, I have some good news: almost three years ago I became a dad myself. I\u2019ve got a little boy named Franklin and he\u2019s the most adorable child ever. Also he can also drive you nuts. For Pete\u2019s sake I hope I didn\u2019t cause you that much grief when I was his age. We get to have so much fun together, though, that it\u2019s all worth it. I\u2019m remembering now things that you and I did 30 years ago I can do with him and it makes me smile. Things I had long ago forgotten are coming back to me. Remember when I used to jump on your bed and we\u2019d play the game \u201ccrash\u201d? Okay, it\u2019s not really an actual game but Franklin loves to climb up on me and crash down to the mattress like I used to. He\u2019ll jump on the bed and look at himself in the mirror and I\u2019ll call him a little monkey and it\u2019s 1985 all over again. Mom and Dad and monkey on a late Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
I met my wife about a year after you passed. It wasn\u2019t long after I met her that I knew we\u2019d marry and have a family. I remember once asking you how you knew that Mom was the right person for you and you didn\u2019t really have an answer, just that somehow you knew. Yup, that\u2019s how it happens. My wife\u2019s name is Leia and she is my greatest companion. She is my constant encouragement and the best mother a little boy could have. She knows a lot about you, of course, and she sees you in me every day.<\/p>\n
Five years ago I left Binghamton, a move I know we\u2019d discussed many times. Yeah, Binghamton just wasn\u2019t doing it for me anymore and Leia and I decided to move closer to her family. We live in Northern Virginia now and though they\u2019ve got the usual group of morons here there are many people who are genuinely nice and I think it\u2019ll be a good place for Franklin to grow up. Honestly, though, I don\u2019t think you\u2019d like it: everyone here is a terrible driver.<\/p>\n
Not long after we moved I started another journey that\u2019s now near its completion. I\u2019m becoming a public school teacher, Dad, endorsed in middle and high school English and social studies. High school English teacher. Real original, I know. Well, over the last 10 years I\u2019ve just become more and more and more like you and I thought I\u2019d make the transformation complete. I started out by teaching kids at our local community center during the summer, then became a substitute teacher during the school year, then a teacher\u2019s aide, and now I\u2019ve just received my official teaching license from the state of Virginia. You and I both tried a few things before we found our calling to be teachers but we found it eventually.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think I ever told you, Dad, but over the last 10 years I\u2019ve realized more and more how much you meant to me. It\u2019s too bad you had to leave when you did, because I think we were just beginning to have an actual mature, adult relationship. There have been many times over the past decade I wished I could have asked your advice about something but of course you weren\u2019t there. But somehow you were<\/em> there and I\u2019ve been able to sort of piece together the things we would have talked about and the advice you would\u2019ve given me. Something sunk in and somehow I was able to figure it out, even with you not here. I remember what you said in that last meaningful conversation we had, just a few days before you were gone, that things were going to happen I didn\u2019t expect or plan on, and I would have to deal with them. There have been plenty of such occurrences and your advice has been most appropriate.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sorry I didn\u2019t listen more attentively to all your other advice before that, when I was a teenager and probably didn\u2019t think it was so important. Somehow, though, I can hear your voice 20 years later with something that I would have ignored and see now its wisdom. I find myself saying things to Franklin you would have said, or doing things you would have done. It\u2019s scary sometimes, but not in a bad way. Turns out that I turned out just like you: husband, father, teacher. I wasn\u2019t any of those things 10 years ago, yet here I am.<\/p>\n You\u2019re my greatest idol, Dad, and I guess it\u2019s hardly any coincidence that we ended up so much alike. Remember when I was a kid and said I wanted to be like Joe DiMaggio or Frank Sinatra? Over the last 10 years I realize the person I wanted to be was you<\/em>. I had no better teacher and no better person to emulate than the man who lived right in my own house. I was lucky to have you for a role model even if I didn\u2019t realize it at the time. I wish I had told you then but it took me a while to figure it out. I did, though, and that\u2019s all that matters. You taught me so many wonderful things and somehow you\u2019re still teaching me. How to be a good husband, a good father, generous, fair, honest, and faithful. Franklin\u2019s going to hear all of it, too, of course, because that\u2019s what being a dad is all about.<\/p>\n I learned from the best. Thanks, Dad.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mikey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Dad, It\u2019s been 10 years since we last got to talk. There hasn\u2019t been a day since that I haven\u2019t thought of you, and I find myself speaking of you often even to those you never got to … Continue reading