January 6th - My dad

January 6th
I am grateful for my dad. I will start off with my honest opinion, I don't think there has been a great father / son relationship between myself and my dad, he may think so but I feel differently. 

But I do admire many things about him and thankful. He is one who is there to teach me lessons in life, even some that was unintentionally taught and this is based on what I know off his personality and character. Though saying this I feel I am somewhat different to him.

I am firstly grateful for gaining persistence and determination to complete task and activities that come my way to the best of my ability. Between the age of 8 to 13, I played cricket for the local cricket clubs. I started playing in the junior competition club and from what I was told was fairly good. I remember being praised and encouraged on my bowling, my batting skills were following fairly close by, but lets forget about my fielding. I always found that boring and mundane. However, my dad said I was a good batsman and all I needed to do was correct my posture and batting stance. Now, instead of this improving my game, having the ability to score more runs, I went completely backwards. I wasn't able to play as well as I used to. In fact my average was between a duck to one run per game. I felt my dad put so much pressure on getting my posture and stance correct, he didn't understand that it was not working for me. I was now losing my love for the game and the will to continue playing, finding it embarrassing to participate in games, I was even finding myself getting scared of the ball. I could see myself going downhill fast. Actually, I was at the bottom of the hill looking up at the others succeeding. However, dad would take me to the cricket nets or driveway and continue helping me become a better batsman. 

This story would sound like either my dad was a hard ass and didn't caring about what I thought....or that I had to man up (which I'm guessing that majority of you are thinking). But this story has played in my mind many many times and has made me sad and angry. But I have only lately seen this story in a positive light and found two things I am grateful for with my dad. Even though I wasn't getting ahead with my cricket batting skills, he taught me to be persistent and determined for results in anything I do, not giving up when you want and to give it another shot. He also showed me that he believed in me, even though I didn't believe in myself, and had this vision that I was going to get it. You may think its my wishful thinking that he believed in me but the story above is a glimpse of proof. 

I am also grateful for him teaching me certain things about my religion, for standing up for me many times when I was to shy to stand up for myself, for explaining things that I didn't quite understand at school (i.e Maths), for giving me a job in his business while in my 20's and keeping me in check when I was out of line. To tell you the truth, from writing this blog I have realise a few more things that I am grateful for with my dad. It's kind of helping me see him in a different way, a more positive way. So to Dad, I am thankful and grateful for all that you have done for me, to help me be the man that I am now and I'm sorry for the times I have been disrespectful, stubborn and snappy at you. Thank you Dad :)