My Dad

The ironic thing about father’s day is that instead of inspiring me to the warm-fuzzies about my dad, I panic about not knowing what gift to buy my dad, as he falls into that class of people who are impossible to buy gifts for.

Regardless, I did end up finding 2 perfect books for him, more on that later, but also decided to commemorate him with a blog post. So here’s to you dad!

My dad is simply, an unbelievable man and role model for me. I feel blessed to have grown up in a home where my father set an incredible example of love and respect for my mom, and was a strong man of God. Every guy I met growing up was compared to him, and many did not stand a chance! Dad was not and is not the sappy, lovey-dovey father that I see every now and then (thank goodness!), he invested in my sister; brother and I through modeling what a solid Christian person should look like. His wisdom, passion to explore, and ability to not be ‘square’ are some of my favorite qualities in him.

Some of my favorite times with him growing up revolve around him taking time just to be with us. When I was in 1^st grade, I decided I wanted to play flute. Dad and Mom very wisely said that I needed to take 4 years of piano lessons before I played flute and therefore enrolled me in lessons. Beginning in second grade, every single morning Dad would walk the mile with me to school, sit with me in the piano studio, and help me practice piano for 30 minutes. He actually helped to teach me piano in addition to my teacher. Wow! Isn’t that just incredible!?

When I moved on to playing flute, he was always the one who drove me to competitions, when I won or lost, he was the first one to comfort or congratulate me, always encouraging me to strive for my best.

My dad, for the most part, has always been the principal or director of every school I attended. Therefore, he was always around to comfort me when I failed my first and only test (chemistry). He has always been my quiet but encouraging fan club when I needed one.

Many of you might know that he was an incredible athlete in his day, and it must have been hard to raise a first born who had absolutely no inkling in the whole “sports department”. Once when I was in 4^th grade he took my brother and I out to a tennis court to teach us tennis… for the record, I failed one test in college, the tennis class test. Wow. He attempted again in junior high to get us running, and we complained after 2 blocks that it was too hard. Poor guy…

Nowadays, my dad is also my boss, which makes for an interesting work environment! I can’t tell you how many times I have had to write emails to my boss and literally spend 5 minutes trying to figure out how to start the email. “Dear Dr. Livingston”, (too formal), “Hey!” (too blonde), or my personal favorite: ____________________ : not writing anything except for what’s in the body of the email. Additionally, he is such a neat freak compared to me. Luckily, I can tell he is coming by the way he walks, so anytime I hear his shoes coming down the hallway outside my classroom, I run to my office desk and hastily shove everything to the floor under my desk. Classy right?

I got him 2 books this year to inspire his summer reading:

"Getting Stoned with Savages" is the all important sequel to "Sex Lives of Cannibals"... : ) (Andrew says I should explain what its about so as to not weird people out. It's essentially a funny travelogue...)

This is the backpacker's guide to Egypt, which is my latest push for our family/me to visit. Quite subtle, don't you think?

All in all, he is awesome and I love him! Happy Father’s Day, Dad!