My Father's Daughter

It's a long way to go before Father's Day, but I miss my dad and as I was thinking about him this past few days, I thought of how can I thank my dad and let him know what his love and strength means to me. I guess I'll do it by recollecting events whose underlying message teaches the lesson of life to me.

When I was a little girl, I thought my dad was a big man. And being a little girl I had not yet learned about how to tell how tall a person was. I just knew he was the tallest man I knew. Even as I grew up, I remember him always being taller. And now at my age (45) he still looms over me.

In the case of my father ( he is just 5'5), I don’t think it is the height of a man that determines his influence and presence as much as it is his passion for passing on what he knows. And it seemed to me that my dad knew about a lot of things. He is smart and have that unshakable strength of character and values that we children really admired and has served as our guide in living our lives. We also hope to pass them on to our next generations.

My father gave me the ability to create important things out of nothing. There was a time when I needed a box for something. “Well, make one.” I remember he told me. I just looked at him. So he showed me how to make a box. How does that apply into my life? I have been able to look at a problem and analize them thereby finding a solution. Where there is a will, there is a way. That happens to be one of my strongest assets and has served me well in all endeavors I have taken on.

I guess the one area in my life that I still have to work by using that ability will be on matter’s of the heart. And I think that I also got that from my father. As a man, he may not have always shown his emotion or been able to express his feelings adequately but I know that he feels deeply and has passion. His whole life he was never afraid to try something new. Whether it was building something, influencing people, repairing something broken or being adventurous, he taught me that you can do anything if you literally put your mind and even put your heart into it because it is more satisfying if you do it with passion. And so that too makes me my father’s daughter. And I am proud to be his daughter.