This post is sponsored by Michelob ULTRA but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.
This post is sponsored by Michelob Ultra but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.
A year or two ago, I wrote a little ode to my mom on Mother’s Day to thank her for giving me my bookish life.
This year, I was prompted by Michelob ULTRA to share a little bit about my dad for Father’s Day.
I loved the idea because I realized that I haven’t shared that much about Steve, my father, on here before!
So let me tell you a little about Steve. First, I actually call him Ta. It’s a shortened version of Tattie, which is yiddish for father. A lot of the kids at our temple growing up called their dads the same thing and my sister and I picked up the habit quickly. Luckily, Steve was okay with it.
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I learned a lot from from my dad growing up. Or rather, he taught me a lot, whether or not he meant to.
First, was the importance of staying active.
Anyone who knows my dad knows that he loves his bicycle. Like, LOVES his bicycles. Collecting and riding. He’ll go for a ride whether it’s 20 degrees or 80 degrees. When the weather was just too terrible to ride a bike outside (aka my mom told him it was too terrible), he would go to an athletic club and ride a bike there. It was a good reminder that no matter what mood you’re in, what the weather’s like, or where you are, find the way you love to stay active and do it. It’ll improve your mood that day and your body in the long run.
Second, he taught me the power of good business.
I could also just call this flat out the power of keeping good relationships. Steve is a networker, but more than that, he’s a good friend. I don’t know how many different times or places I’ve been with my dad where he’ll introduce us to some random person. That person will then go on to talk about how they worked together at this and that place so many years ago and then tell some story about it. This has also happened countless times with friends of his from college, from temple, and from other places. The relationships he has, he cares about. Even better than that, when he sees a way he can connect two people who can help each other out, he does.
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Finally, he taught me that I always need to push through anything in my way.
When I was younger and would complain that I couldn’t do something, my dad would always ask me “if I actually couldn’t do something or if I was putting a stumbling block in my way?” When I was little, it would annoy me to no end. It was clearly not the answer I wanted. Now that I’m older, I get it. Whenever I run into a problem, I always now look at it from a new point of view. I ask myself, “am I the one stopping this from moving ahead? If so, what can I do to change that?”
If I ever feel like I need to really remember the meaning of that phrase or explain to someone, I actually just have the example from my dad to share. A few years ago, my dad was on a charity bike ride when his bike skidded over something on the road and he fell off of it and broke his hip. It was the beginning of June and prime bike riding season, but my dad was now bed ridden for the immediate future. However, he had also just signed up for a big bike ride at the end of October that he didn’t want to miss. So he set a “simple” goal for himself: he would be back on his bike and in the ride by October. For most people that goal would be flat out crazy. My dad basically had every stumbling block excuse in the book if he really wanted it. But he pushed through them and was back on the bike by October.
So even though I couldn’t stand hearing or really understand that phrase growing up Ta, I’m immensely grateful for it now.
Ta, thank you for all of the lessons you’ve taught me over the years, both the above and many more.
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