To my Father on Father’s Day:

We are so alike it’s probably not good, but over the years I have so much to be thankful for. I know now that you would do anything for me. Thank you for following through on your vows. In a world of “this is hard”, or “it just didn’t work out for us”, I am extremely thankful and blessed that my parents are still married and that you still take care of each other. I know it’s not easy and I know it’s not a lot of fun, but I appreciate that vows are vows to you. It gives a huge brick wall of stability to what a marriage in the eyes of God are upholding to be. Thank you for supporting my college tuition and books. Thank you for calling me every time I have a piece of mail at the farm. Thank you for making sure I always got a T-shirt no matter where we went. Thank you for letting me do whatever I want and making my own mistakes and choices. Thank you for raising me firmly as I seek it in others and know that you needed us to be your pride. Thank you for adding to our interests and choosing adventure over material every weekend. Thank you for never going to sleep before we were home for curfew so you knew we were safe before you went to bed. Thank you for your strength to survive three types of cancer. I just wouldn’t know how to start a tractor without you. Thank you for the times you got up to hug me first, for the times you made sure you told me you did love me. Thank you for making church a priority and for instilling the thought of God Almighty in every situation. Thank you for renting movies every week instead of ever paying for cable. Thank you for buying me old textbooks to play teacher with when I was in elementary school. Thank you for never doing the wrong thing and always trying to do what is right and for never making big mistakes or failing terribly at having moral ground. Thank you for not making me put back my very first cookbook at Barnes and Nobles when I was nine years old. Thank you for appreciating my care for you during chemo and saying I deserved that gift. It is what guided my passion to culinary arts. Thank you for letting me put culinary arts on every scholarship application even though it would turn out I would major in education. Thank you for tuning the radio in the truck to the Spanish channel every time Robert and I fought over the station. I was almost fluent for a while. Thank you for buying me random things when you think I would like them however awful cat blanket, shrunken skull sweatshirt, cases of salsa I mentioned I liked, or dragon car seat coverish they are. Thank you for smiling when I thought I was going to be married. Thank you for still paying my cell phone bill every month. Thank you for every football game you sat through before I could drive so I could be in the student section. Thank you for every basketball game you stayed until the end for. I’ll never know what a good daughter is put I pray every day that it is laid on my heart that I am a good one. A good daughter. Sister. Friend. So Happy Father’s Day to the only Dad I ever had.