Remembering my Dad
They always say that a little girls first hero is her dad. I could have had no better of a hero to look up to. Growing up, he was always a hard ass, but he did it with a purpose and a sense of humor. He lived by the motto of “work hard, play hard”.
At work he was a Professor at SDSU for 27 years in the field of Hydrogeology. I have met so many of his former students that came up and... thanked him for all that he taught them, and also all of the research that he has done for his field.
When it came time to play hard, he was able to show me so many different areas of the world growing up, traveling to places that most people could only dream of going. He taught me how to be respectful and responsible to all things around.
I am so thankful that I had such a strong example to look up to as I was growing up, and presented with so many wonderful opportunities.
Later on in life my dad became an even better role model, someone that one day, I could only hope to inspire as many people as he has. As he started training for triathalons and marathons he started raising money for various charity organizations, and training other athletes in the same style of endurance training. Everywhere that my dad went he influenced people in such a positive way, whether it was teaching students, mentoring athletes in various activities, showing people new and different fun activities that they could be participating in, or some words of wisdom, he was always their for you.
Over the past two years ALS had slowly robbed my dad of every single one of these activities that he enjoyed doing. I am so thankful that my son Jake was able to know my dad before this disease took away who he was. It has been a horrible experience to see such a strong person placed in this state with no chance for recovery. I am relieved that my dad is no longer having fight this battle and hope that the FDA will soon get there acts together so that others do not have to suffer this same fate.
There are so many other great things that I could say about my dad, but I will cut it off right here stating that he was by far one of the best people that I have met on earth, and I have the privilege to call him “dad”.