A Belated Father's Day

After Law School Graduation

I'll start with this one story about my dad: He bought a set of Encyclopedias for his children before he even met my mom.

It took me a long time to appreciate all my dad did for me as a child. When I was little he worked as a trauma surgeon and so he was only home for a few minutes and then off again until late at night helping people who'd been stabbed or shot. I didn't realize at the time that he worked such long hours for me and my sisters. He wanted us to be able to do whatever we wanted to do. He did not want us to be limited by lack of education so he worked hard so that we could enjoy schools in a nice high achieving school district and so that when the time came we'd have no chioce but to go to college because the money had already been set aside. I didn't really realize what a sacrifice this hard work was until recently when he seemed sad about having missed one of our firsts because he was at work. I hope having gone to all our graduations has made up for missing some small things along the way because without all that hard work he put into making sure we had enough and were able to learn formed a sturdy foundation for my life today and I am incredibly grateful.

I looked for and could not find a photo from my college graduation. My dad is an alumni trustee emeritus so he got to give my degree. We were supposed to hug. I inherited my nonhugginess from my dad and so the class of '09 and it's supporters were treated to the world's 5th most awkward hug ever. The photo was great. I have no idea where it is though.

And, my dad is usually late because he's one of those people who have too much to do so they always try to fit too much into too little time so I don't think he'd mind the late Father's Day greeting too much.