My dad read this to me last night, with some emotion in his voice. As he read, I thought about him; he is unquestionably my hero. I wholeheartedly believe that he could do all of the things mentioned in this beautiful tribute, though he may not have...yet. As a farmers daughter, I grew up thinking I could do all of those things too. Time and persistence have proven this to be true thus far. Thanks to my parents (Mom and Dad) I have had an amazing life. Anything I wanted to do they supported me, complimented my desire to try something new, and were there to listen to me mourn when things didn’t turn out as I’d hoped.
Being raised by people as capable as my parents lead me to believe that everyone could do all of the things enumerated in this poem, if they only tried. Time and experience have proven that belief wrong-there are so many people who are limited by their fear of failure, lack of motivation or lack of capability. I am grateful to come from a special breed who downplay those fears and focus on their capabilities, thus expanding them.
My Dad has served as the president of organizations, taught college, been a dean, participated in 4-H and FFA, volunteered at the junior livestock auction for as long as I can remember, stopped to help people broken down on the side of the road, built a car and a shop, fixed cars and tractors, laughed and mourned with us, taught us to work, cheered at our sporting events, sat through band concerts, and supported us and the community around him in innumerable ways.
This also started me thinking about dating. Likely most of the people I dated never had any chance to live up to the high expectations I’ve set. The bar for us was high, and we excelled. Making excuses was not an option, it just took up time that could have been spent becoming prepared to do instead of talk about doing. There must be others out there who have the same outlook on life, they are simply hard to find because they are outstanding in their fields.
