Caymen
Boylan
Prof
Maltman
ENGC
1101-03
Feb
6th, 2017
Mi Padre
The man I call my father has done quite an
array of things in not only the past few years, but throughout his whole life.
My dad wasn’t initially my first choice for the essay, but we got to talking
one day over dinner, one thing lead to another and I realized he was the one
who should be in the spotlight. His journey of life began October 1st,
1969 in New Rochelle, New York. His father, from New York and his mother, from
Virginia, had decided they would move to the outskirts of the big city to raise
their firstborn son. There
are pictures of him at my age, and besides the braces and feathered blond hair,
it’s an alarming resemblance.
He played basketball in high school and was amazing for being only six foot. He was
actually offered a scholarship to play at the University of Florida, which
after much thought and time, realized he didn’t want to do. After completing several semesters at a local community college, he moved to
San Diego. This is where he would meet my mother a few years later. He lived the California life and lived near
the beach, worked at a nice restaurant/bar directly on the beach, somewhere I
have visited numerous times. At times, I think about doing the same thing for a
while, living the good life on the beach, but he said I should definitely
finish school before that happens. After meeting my mother, my dad proposes to
her after a couple years of dating. My mom becomes pregnant with me and they
move back to Minnesota, where nearly all of my mother’s family lives. I grew up
in Minnesota, often asking why they couldn’t have stayed on the West Coast for
a few more months so I could have been raised there, but we all know Minnesota
is a better place to raise a family.
Fast forward a few years down the road, and
I am starting high school, and my father is in the military at this time. He
joined the army and had been getting special training in different languages.
He was deployed my entire senior year and then some, it was difficult for him
to leave for that much time, but it helped that I was older and understood more
than a small child seeing their father leave for a year. He returned home and
began working for a security company while completing other training within the
army. As time went on, he knew that the field of security is what he wanted to
do post military, so he followed that feeling he knew was right. He worked for
several, extremely well-known buildings and companies within Minneapolis and
the surrounding area. He had found his niche, even though it had taken longer
than expected. Before he entered the security field, I would have thought the
military would be his permanent career choice. I think it was a really
transition, seeing that the two fields cross over quite a bit. He is now
working corporate for one of the companies affiliated with the security he
began doing directly out of the military.
I asked him if he could have gone back and
changed things, he would have finished school first, and then moved out to the
west coast.
He seemed to turn out fine for not finishing college right out of high school,
and I think that was more common a generation ago. I asked him if he had
regrets about major life and career choices he had made. He answered, saying we
all have small regrets, but those choices brought him to where he is now, and
he said because of that he wouldn’t have changed much, if anything.
I am really glad I chose my father to
interview, it’s interesting how sometimes the closest people to us are the ones
we need to learn the most about. I hope one day, my kid asked to interview me.
Through all the time spent together and stories told, some of the most basic
questions are never answered. For that, I am thankful I had this opportunity to
question my father about his past, his life and now his present.
