Happy Birthday Pa!

Happy Birthday Lolo!

It's my father's 63rd birthday today and though we are a couple thousand miles from each other technology has given us to keep in touch in a regular basis. I want to share my gratitude and love to the man I am proud to call my father.

• Thank you for giving me life, I will not be here if not for you and mama.

• Thank you for working hard everyday to provide for us and my siblings when we were growing up. I saw it everyday how difficult it is to provide for us all, but I never heard you and mama complain or express regret in taking care us.

• Thank you for being there for us through the best and worst time of our lives. You were always there for me when I needed you the most, for listening when I only needed someone to hear what is inside my mind.

• Thank you for teaching that women should be treated as equals and that they should be respected and love no matter the circumstances, and that the most important woman in a man's life is her mother until he is married, then it becomes his wife and that no one has the right to disrespect her.

• Thank you for being an example of man who is slow to anger and to always try understand the circumstances behind another person's action that may have hurt. Keeping a grudge is only destructive to the one who has it because most of the time they don't know. I am still working on this but I know because of you I will be able to achieve this.

• Thank you for teaching me that an apology goes a long way, that saying sorry when one has made mistake makes one a better person and that it does not diminishes him. That forgiveness is important to both parties involve. 

• Thank you for teaching, that one must never intentionally say anything that would hurt another or in anger, and if we are to say anything about another person it should be something that we can say in front of that person.

• Thank you for teaching me that a man's happiness is not measured by one's fame, power, or riches. That money is only one of the means in achieving happiness. I remember you telling me that I should do things and have a career that makes me happy and your only condition is that I do my best and never give up on my dreams.

• Thank you for teaching that it is okay to sing even when you are out of tune, to dance in public is cool, that watching cartoons when you are past 30 is still cool, and daddy jokes are the best jokes in the world.

• Thank you for loving me.