No twitter today since I wanted to get my thoughts out in full without any real limitations, but this entry will be dedicated to talking about my dad.
It’s amazing how your life is shaped by your parents and how much influence you take from your mom and dad. For Mother’s Day, I talked about how I gained a strong work ethic and a desire to succeed from my mom. For Father’s Day, I wanted to point how I got a love for sports and the “talking” bug from my dad.
My dad has a huge love for sports and is open to every kind. Of course, his favourite sport is hockey, but the little twist is that he prefers the junior game as opposed to the NHL. But he also loves watching the Blue Jays in the summer and the New England Patriots in the winter, and will even take time to watch the English Premier League.
But he’s the kind of guy that will just strike up a conversation with anyone in sight. The kind of thing that I get to do on a daily basis now by hosting a show, but this took some time to get used. You see, my mom was not a big fan of the open concept. I remember my parents getting into arguments in public because my dad would start talking to a complete stranger and my mom would be just livid with the idea because she didn’t want my dad to embarrass himself. How ironic that she would get mad about embarrassment when my sister and I were the ones that were embarrassed when the two of them would fight in public? But that’s another situation and I guess it worked ‘cause my parents are still married after 30-something years.
Anyways, I was always conflicted because I didn’t know what side to be on: mom or dad? But I guess the “talking” gene was something that was never going to get away from me.
I told the story on the air before, but for those who missed it, my first recollection of any sporting event was my dad taking me to an Ottawa 67’s game when I was 4 years old. My dad was/is/always will be a fan of the 67’s and he couldn’t wait to take me the first chance he got.
We would always show up 30 minutes before the game in order to get a good seat, watch the players warm up and get some ol-fashioned Dad dinner of hot dogs and a coke. The first time he took me, he pointed to the players and asked, “Do you want to be one of those guys?” and I responded by saying, “No, I want to be one of those guys,” as I pointed to the press box. Hard to imagine that I even knew what a press box was at that early stage of my life, but I guess I did.
So I combined what makes my mom so special and what makes my dad so special and now, here we are 27 years later and I get to do something every day that I absolutely love.
Mom had her turn, so today, here’s the best way I could think of to say, Thanks Dad! :-)