my dad
I just want to x-post an entry Lin wrote about our Dad from her tumblr because I'm also amazed by my father.
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my dad
My dad graduated last night.
Dad is 57. He went to broadcasting school out of high school and was a DJ for several years-the love of his life, really. He has a voice for the radio and for speeches, by all means. When radio work couldn’t pay the bills anymore, he spent the next couple decades working 10-hour night shifts for Alltell and then for a television station, working master controls. When talk started at the station that there would be consolidating and moving its location to an hour away at some point in the future, we started telling him he should go back to school-something he’s always wanted to do, but never really had the time to. Broadcasting school was a one- or two-year hing, and now that that salary can’t keep our family afloat, he decided he would have to look into a new degree.
And man, was he excited.
Dad started college the same time I did-he, 54, and me, 18. I moved two hours upstate to go to my university full-time, while he stayed home and drove five or ten minutes to class pretty much every evening. His weekday schedule went as this: Wake up at 3am, go to work for 3:30 or 4am (I forget which), come home at 2:30, sleep for an hour or two so he could function, do homework somewhat obsessively, sometimes make dinner, and go to class until late. As soon as he’d get home, 10:00ish, he’d go to bed so he could be up early for work again. On his three days off from work, he worked a second job at a retail store for some extra money. This was his schedule almost exactly for the week for two years-the days when he didn’t have class he had meetings of some sort, and poor Dad really didn’t have much time to himself.
Last night, he graduated with an Associate’s degree in Accounting, something he’s always loved doing and been really good at. He was a full-time student with one full-time job and a part-time job, still going to Mass and being active in the community. I have never seen someone so dedicated to homework before, either-he graduated with a 3.9 GPA, and also applied and was selected to do the opening speech for the graduation. With his broadcasting-school-degree voice, he did wonderfully.
This morning, he’s trying to figure out how to get set up for another two-year program to get his Bachelor’s degree. Dad’s 57-most people retire within a decade from now, but not my dad.
I’m proud of you, daddy. Congratulations. :)
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my dad
My dad graduated last night.
Dad is 57. He went to broadcasting school out of high school and was a DJ for several years-the love of his life, really. He has a voice for the radio and for speeches, by all means. When radio work couldn’t pay the bills anymore, he spent the next couple decades working 10-hour night shifts for Alltell and then for a television station, working master controls. When talk started at the station that there would be consolidating and moving its location to an hour away at some point in the future, we started telling him he should go back to school-something he’s always wanted to do, but never really had the time to. Broadcasting school was a one- or two-year hing, and now that that salary can’t keep our family afloat, he decided he would have to look into a new degree.
And man, was he excited.
Dad started college the same time I did-he, 54, and me, 18. I moved two hours upstate to go to my university full-time, while he stayed home and drove five or ten minutes to class pretty much every evening. His weekday schedule went as this: Wake up at 3am, go to work for 3:30 or 4am (I forget which), come home at 2:30, sleep for an hour or two so he could function, do homework somewhat obsessively, sometimes make dinner, and go to class until late. As soon as he’d get home, 10:00ish, he’d go to bed so he could be up early for work again. On his three days off from work, he worked a second job at a retail store for some extra money. This was his schedule almost exactly for the week for two years-the days when he didn’t have class he had meetings of some sort, and poor Dad really didn’t have much time to himself.
Last night, he graduated with an Associate’s degree in Accounting, something he’s always loved doing and been really good at. He was a full-time student with one full-time job and a part-time job, still going to Mass and being active in the community. I have never seen someone so dedicated to homework before, either-he graduated with a 3.9 GPA, and also applied and was selected to do the opening speech for the graduation. With his broadcasting-school-degree voice, he did wonderfully.
This morning, he’s trying to figure out how to get set up for another two-year program to get his Bachelor’s degree. Dad’s 57-most people retire within a decade from now, but not my dad.
I’m proud of you, daddy. Congratulations. :)