Happy Father’s Day

About 24 years ago now, we sat down as a family and my Dad told us he got laid off from his job. Then he said, “I’m going to start my own company. Things will be tight for a while, but it’s going to be great.”
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I used to sit up with him past bedtime in the once garage, turned office, watching him put together motherboards, reconnect wires, building computers as he quoted his father saying, “if you take the time to do it right the first time, you won’t have to do it a second time.”
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It was those nights, watching him work and listening to him explain computer engineering as he answered my questions of what he was doing exactly even though I didn’t understand any of it, where I learned what hard work and chasing dreams really was.
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Those lessons didn’t really click until I followed that same path. There are many who would describe me as a slight workaholic. I was always someone who had more than one job at a time, worked overtime, and honestly didn’t know what to do with myself when I didn’t have a job.
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Eight years ago, I took a leap of faith to pursue a passion for photography I’ve had since the age of 12. Six years ago, I started my own company.
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My girls see me glued to my computer as I edit images, respond to emails, manage my website and social media among other daily tasks. There are days I wonder if having a regular 9-5 job would be easier on them than seeing me buried in my computer. And then they climb into my lap and ask me to explain what I’m doing, and I show them how an image changes by moving the sliders in Lightroom. As their eyes light up, I am right back in my childhood home with my Dad.
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It’s then I smile and say, “It doesn’t look like I’m doing much some days, and some days I work long hours. But you know what? It’s going to be great!”
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Thank you Dad. Thank you for those lessons I didn’t know I was getting. Thank you for sharing your work ethic, your wisdom, for explaining computers when I’m sure you knew I wouldn’t remember a single thing about them. Thank you for showing me it’s ok to chase a dream and build something from nothing. Happy Father’s Day ❤