The Post I Should Have Posted A Long Time Ago

This past Mother's Day, I wrote a post for my mom and I thought to myself, "When Father's Day rolls around you'll have an awesome post for dad too!" And then Father's day rolled around, and I didn't have a post for my dad. I was thinking about that the other day and it made me feel bad.

Especially with a few events that have happened recently, I figured that it was time for dad to get his own post. 

*clears throat and pops knuckles*

My dad is the person who taught me to stand up for myself and for my friends no matter what.

He taught me to never give up on my dreams and how to be tough. 

While my mom introduced me to music and writing, my dad introduced me to nature and I feel that it is equally important. 

He taught me how to explore and how to get lost in the trees behind our house that I used to call the "forest". 

The woods have always been a completely different universe for me and I think that if I hadn't grown up with them, I wouldn't have the imagination that I have today. 

They were always more than just woods to me. They were places where faeries lived on moss hills. They were where mermaids and mermen swam in the nearby river. Sometimes they were inhabited by dreadful beasts and hooded, wicked goblins. 

Even today, I find it hard to believe that there isn't some type of magic there in the trees. When the light from the setting sun comes through the trees, the woods become drenched in faerie dust. 

But now I'm talking about the woods, so I'll get back on track. 

My dad was the person who taught me how to swim and ride a bike. He taught me how to solve multiple problems too. Most of them involve life or death situations because my dad is a police officer and police officers worry about these types of things. He taught me how to break out of a trunk (in the event that I was kidnapped), how to leave clues of my DNA (in the event that I was kidnapped), where the pressure points are on the human body (in the event that I was jumped, kidnapped, or just needed to know), how to jump out of a car (kidnapped), that you should always go for the thumb first if someone won't let go of you, and how to jab someone's eyes.... in case I was kidnapped.

He also played Twister with me. Now, I'm not talking about the floor mat game with colors and a good understanding of yoga, I'm talking about pretending that we were in the movie Twister and a tornado was chasing us. Back in those days, I wanted to be a storm chaser. This was after I had moved on from wanting to be a skydiving ballerina. 

This is the same man who taught me how to catch mice in butter-bowls and release them into the wild (our next door neighbor's yard). In our old house, we had a mouse problem in the winter months. Because I am a lover of all animals, no matter the species, my dad found a new way to get rid of them. I couldn't stand to see them dead in the traps. 

But most recently, my dad helped me bury my cat Peeta. Even when I type that now, it doesn't seem real. It seems impossible that my mother could have called me a few weeks ago and told me that Peeta was dead. 

But my dad, he helped me come to terms with the fact that I would never walk around the backyard with Peeta at my heels again. Dad listened to all of my sobbing and all of my sadness and he never once told me that I should toughen up. He knew how much Peeta meant to me. 

On the day that Peeta died, dad brought home flowers for Peeta's grave and sushi to try and cheer me up. 

I don't think I'll ever forget that, either. I love you dad, and I don't know what I would do without you.
Thank you for reminding me again why you'll always be my best boy, and for teaching me that I should never give up on my dreams. 

Peace, love, and old photos, 

Sara