My Daughter’s guest blog post

IT’S NOT ABOUT BIKING!

I asked my daughter, Katie, to be a guest blogger on my site. She is the brains of the family, salutatorian, 32 ACT, full academic ride to CMU and MSU Funded her M.A. and PhD. She is bright, witty and a great writer. She was also recognized in a publication “Western Innovators” where a peer cited her as a “world leading authority”in her field. I’d try to explain the field but it has something to do with fields. Katie is a social scientist with a passion for weed science and how she can work with farmers to enable better crop and weed management. (“And that’s all I have to say about that” -Forrest Gump)

She is currently doing a post-doc at Univ of Idaho and has a couple of other funded projects she is working on. In addition to this she is mentoring students, overseeing some graduate student funding, and other things I have forgotten. She is juggling lots of balls. But I persuaded her to take time out of her busy schedule to do a blog post. She graciously agreed to do it.

I expected a little article on the merits of having a father that refuses to grow up and act his age, whatever that means,(she often has to be the adult when we are together) and to take few other little jabs at me. What she wrote was something entirely unexpected and brought a tear to my eye.

As parents we always want to do what’s best for our kids but we never really know what, if anything, worked. Katie has provided me some wonderful insight for which I’m thankful.

Everything she says I have told her is true in Spades. If I had a choice of anyone in the world to be my little girl ,it would be you Katie. So in that regard I won the lottery.

So with no further platitudes here is her post. I apologize if you were expecting a blog on biking. This one is different, but good.

Katie writes:

One of the joys of growing up–and getting older – has been growing closer to my dad. We weren’t exactly two peas in a pod in my youth. Yet as I gain more perspective, I see more and more how amazing he is and how very alike we can be.

My dad taught me a lot that, at the time, was annoying, difficult, and even painful. I didn’t want to try the escargot, to keep my commitment to the middle school basketball team, to walk back up and ask the cashier for the correct change. Now I take joy in trying and enjoying a wide variety of foods, am a master of sticking to my commitments, and am more willing to point out when someone, however accidentally, has wronged me. 

Sometimes, it’s hard to parse out what parts of my personality and character can be attributed to nature versus nurture. Of course, that is what research often finds – that they do not act independently but are intrinsically intertwined. So what parts of ‘me’ are like my dad come partly from the things he taught me, the expectations he had of me–but also partly from our own natural similarities. 

I’m hard headed, and rarely back down from a challenge.

I’m industrious and ambitious.

I’m a deep thinker, and can become caught up in philosophical questions.

I’m athletic and have a knack for sports.

I’m proud, occasionally to a fault.

I ask hard questions and demand much from those around me.

I sometimes suffer from depression, and often from anxiety.

I lose myself in nostalgia and can forget to appreciate the present moment.

I love deeply, feel deeply, and care very very deeply. 

These are just some of the ways I am like my dad. As I follow along with his blog–this blog–I notice all of these things and more. 

His writing and stories make me smile, think, laugh, and even get a little teary-eyed. His honesty is touching. And, more than anything, I feel proud. 

This is another way my dad and I are alike. We are staunch supporters of each other. We are proud of each other. It wasn’t necessarily always like this, but I know it is now, because he tells me.  More and more in recent years, he’ll text me, or call me, or even write me a letter just to tell me how proud he is. Not just of my successes, but as a person. That he couldn’t be prouder. 

He tells me he loves me.

Such a little thing, and so important to hear.

So important that I had to take this guest blog opportunity to say it myself. I love you dad, and I couldn’t be prouder. Not because of your successes, not because you’re taking on this ride, but because you’re you. 

I’m so delighted that this blog is gaining a following, that you all are getting a little window into the fun, interesting, and yes aggravating person my dad can be. I’m glad I get to share him with you, and I hope you stick with us through this journey. 

Go, Dad, go!

Love, 

Katie