Happy Father's Day!

Today is Father’s Day.

What makes this year’s Father’s Day so different from others, is the impending fact that this is the last Father’s Day my sister and I will celebrate for our dad before leaving for university. What also makes it different, is the fact that my sister and I actually miscounted the date (yes, we’re talking about you, June 1^st), but luckily we have back-up plans in the pocket.

Time flies so quickly. In the blink of an eye, eighteen Father’s Days have passed. Eighteen times of buying gifts (maybe not fully eighteen, because I highly doubt we were capable of choosing gifts when we were mere toddlers), preparing cards and ordering cakes. This year is a little bit different.

This year, I am writing a tribute.

My dad is an ordinary dad. He works hard at the office, comes home, watches TV with the rest of the family and on weekends, we go out for breakfast and usually spend the rest of the day at home, watching Korean entertainment shows, changing the water in the fish tanks or playing mahjong.

My dad is a fun dad. He is a dad who sits down and suggests us to make our own amateur predictions about the World Cup. He teaches us interesting card tricks and when we’re watching a Korean singing show, we make guesses on who wins and who doesn’t.

My dad is a supportive dad. He always makes it a point to come to my competitions (even if he doesn’t quite understand what we’re debating about), and is always ready to give us a high-5 when we get off the stage. He looks at our scripts and supports our school events as best he can.

My dad taught me to be a generous and charitable person. Be it donating to a good cause or taking part in one, he used his own actions to show us how to contribute (in our own ways) to society. It is because of him that my sister and I have developed our own opinion of money – that it isn’t the most important thing in life, but that it can be used wisely to help others.

My dad is at times, a strict dad. Like my mum, he is concerned about our education and our social life. While I used to think that the relatively stricter bringing up took a toll on my social skills, now I appreciate that they had been strict with us, as it has taught us to be careful and to be wise in all our actions.

I know that my dad does all these things because he loves our family. But having been brought up in a more Asian home, none of us are very good at expressing our thoughts and emotions. For my sister and I perhaps, it is much easier to use written words.

Happy Father’s Day!!!! And we love you!!!! JJJ