Milestone
If my math is correct, which it frequently isn't, today February 7th, 2013 is the day that I have officially outlived my father. He suddenly and tragically died two months after his 38th birthday in 1988. This day has been a milestone for me for the last 25 years. I tried as hard as I could not to focus on my father's death and my life path that it created.
I would never have been a teacher had my father survived another ten years. I certainly would have gone to college for a business degree and would surely have taken over the family business by now.
I may have never met my beautiful wife if I wasn't enrolled in the chemistry program that I initially chose as my major.
I think frequently about my father and his sudden death. I hope that my choices in life help me to survive long enough to see my boys in to adulthood. Nothing changed my life more than my father's death. When I heard the doctor tell my mother that the coroner determined that my father's cause of death was an enlarged heart brought on by stress I began a lifelong fight against my father's killer.
I fight stress all the time. Some days I win and some days I lose. Sometimes my temper gets the better of me, but I have tried all my life to be the jovial character many of my friends have come to love. Many of my students and coworkers know me best through my catch phrase "g'moooorning" uttered daily in the school announcements.
My longtime predilection toward acting and radio was first kindled by my grandmother who actually enjoyed the wacky radio programs that I would imitate for her on audio tape. Those early memories make me yearn for an outlet for my radio dreams. Podcasting is the closest I have ever gotten to a radio job, but like everything else in life my personal desires come second. My family comes first.
I miss my father's influence on my life and my children. I think he would have loved the boys they are and the men they will become. I see a lot of him in them since I see a lot of him in me when I look in the mirror and a lot of me in Josh and Alex.
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