The Joy of a Great Dad

I am thinking about Father’s Day, and wishing my dad was still here.  He was my best buddy.  I often think about how much he did for me, in terms of building confidence which has helped me get through so many things in life.   My dad was a welder and I was his only daughter.  So, he took me with him to his welding shop from the time I could walk.  He taught me the names of all the tools in his shop.  He showed me how to use tools and always led me to believe that I could do whatever I wanted to do, as well as anyone else.   This is a picture of my daughter sitting on my dad's welding truck, she experienced the same tomboy joys of hanging out with her grandpa.

 We had a little camp on a lake so we always had a boat.  He let me drive the boat from his lap when I was small and showed me how to read a chart to navigate around the lake. I have a boat of my own now, and it is my favorite thing to do in my life.  

I wanted to try to swim for a long distance, so he took out a row boat and followed me and let me swim as long as I could.

Later on, when I was learning to drive, he showed me how to change the oil in a car and how to change a tire, which I ended up actually having to do one winter afternoon on a lonely country road.  He even managed to get me interested in driving motorcycles by letting me use an old dirt bike to practice in the lot behind the shop.

Because he proved to me that I was capable, I grew up willing to take on challenges, and learn new things.  This is how I ended up going to a one-year program to learn EEG technology back in 1978!  And the challenges kept coming, as I progressed through my career: learning how to do IONM, taking on lab management, becoming an instructor then a program director, and then working for ASET!   

Whether you develop your confidence with the help of your family, or do it on your own, the most important message I have for you, is to keep trying and challenge yourself!  Take that new job!  Set a goal of passing a credentialing exam!  Go back to school part time at night and get a degree!  That is how I got my Master’s in Education and it has opened a thousand doors for me!

Keep growing, keep learning!  Never give up!

And I hope you have a loving dad too, and can think of the things he did for you, and celebrate that special person in your life.