My Dad's Influence

I thought long and hard about this, and I say there are a lot of things in my life that my dad has influenced in one way or another. Which makes sense, since he raised me along with my mom.

This brings me to the first thing he influenced, my love for quality time. As long as I can remember, my family would all gather together and after reading the scriptures as a family, we would watch a movie or a TV show almost every night. So not only was there a big spiritual presence in my life (which I will discuss more in-depth later), but a big familial presence as well. My dad once told me that he added the movie-watching tradition when I was born. He admitted that since he was more or less certain that I was going to be his youngest child, he wanted to spend as much time with me and my other siblings as possible. And as I grew up, I did end up doing a good chunk of my homework in either the kitchen or the family room, where I will likely be with family. Even when I became an adult living with roommates, I found myself wanting to spend time with them, even if they were watching a documentary.

My dad also influenced my taste in music. I have always loved music, to the point where barely a day goes by when I don’t listen to it in some form or another. I especially love listening to it in the car and growing up, my dad will usually grant my request to turn on the CD player. Though, I must note that my dad (or my mom) doesn’t like modern music. Which to him is 80's onward. As a result, I grew up listening to music that I might not have heard otherwise, like classical pieces and 60's music. While my musical horizons have now vastly grown since moving out of the house, I will be lying if I said I don’t appreciate my dad’s taste in music. I proudly have some of the songs that I grew up with in my music playlists.

Dad also always supported me in my writing. Even though he loves non-fiction and has read very few works of fiction in his life, I know that he has at least read some of my work. I also still remember clearly this one time when for a school assignment, I had to write a poem that was inspired/modeled by a famous poet’s poem. My dad read the famous poet’s work as well as mine and declared that he liked mine better. That memory will always make me beam with happiness.

I also like asking questions thanks to my dad. Whenever I had a question, he would give a very detailed answer and make sure that I understood it. Even now as an adult, when he drives me to the airport so I can go back home after Christmas vacation, he will always ask if I had any questions I wanted to ask him. And I often do, even though thanks to my flights being early in the morning, we have to leave in the middle of the night.

My dad is also a very spiritual man. He is very firm in his faith yet is kind and truly friendly to others who don’t exactly share the same beliefs. As I stated above, he is always happy to explain any gospel or church-related questions that I have. It is clear to me that he really does love Jesus Christ and that he is happy to serve Him. I’ve been going to church as long as I can remember, and in part thanks to my Dad’s example, I plan to keep on attending.

And these are just a few of the footprints, or influences, that my Dad has made in my life so far. Happy Father’s Day!