While growing up I had many heroes not unlike most kids back then or today. Those heroes took the form of many athletes. I remember emulating Boston Red Sox players like Jim Rice, Carlton Fisk and Carl Yastrzemski while playing whiffle ball with the neighborhood kids. Other heroes included, Walter Payton and Earl Campbell, my heroes on the gridiron. I never really thought of my dad as a hero because, you know, he was my dad.
Since my childhood I have done many things, among them, getting married and having three children of my own. Like my dad, I try and spend as much time with my children as I possibly can. I remember my dad making every game I ever played. He always came home to eat dinner with the family every night but then would leave and go back to work. He had tremendous work ethic.
As I look back at those moments with my dad, I can remember him always giving me great advice at every pivotal moment in my life, whether that was which college I should attend or which job I should take. He always gave me great advice, even if I did not ask for it. So after much reflection and the aid of experience I have come to realize over the years that my true hero is my DAD.
A true hero is someone that is there when you need them the most, a teacher of life and all its ups and downs. A figure that has values and morals beyond reproach. All those childhood heroes might have had all of those virtues, but they were not my dad. That is why my dad is my hero, someone I look up to and try and emulate every day.
Happy Father’s Day!
TC85631(0615)P