The Bridge.

My dad is an interesting man. Very unassuming and is more than meets the eye. He’s a unique combination of Mr. Miyagi, Yoda, Mr. Magoo, Tony Robbins, MacGyver, and Ebenezer Scrooge. What day you get him on is anyone’s guess. His master craft is landscaping, sadly not a trait I inherited. My dad isn’t fancy and never something he strived, nor cared to be. But he’s a solid human being and not someone who would ever negotiate who he was for anyone and passed along the same to his kids. Both my brother and I are stubborn and absolute in who we are – it may not have gained us popularity when we were younger, not wearing the coolest sneakers or clothes – because neither of my parents cared about us “being cool” – but they cared about making sure we were clothed, fed, and grew up to be good people.

“If they don’t like you because of the clothes you’re wearing, do you really want to be friends with them anyway?” “YES! YES I DO!” – I remember angrily thinking. Now, I look back on that more grateful than you can imagine.

In Junior High, I had a class where each student was tasked in making a bridge. Each bridge would be judged on various criteria – aesthetics, function, etc. We had a week to complete our bridge. I was not excited about this assignment because I was terrible at anything that involved building. The kids around me were building these fancy looking bridges and I sat there hopeless with random pieces of wood sprawled around me. It was truly a pathetic sight.

I believe it was the day before the assignment was due, I approached my dad almost in tears. We got to work – I rolled my eyes the entire time because the bridge we made was so not fancy and I couldn’t believe the embarrassment of an assignment I was about to submit. I didn’t dare vocalize that to my dad, because one peep and he would have let me fail the assignment without his help. I looked at it and thought “that’s it?”

Fast forward to the judging, mine came in first place for functionality. I was shocked.
My dad turns 70 today. Today, and every day, I am grateful for him showing me that in life, being functional outweighs being fancy.

Happy 70th birthday to my functional, not fancy Dad ❤️