We always hear horror stories about dads and its really shocking when you have a good father infact an amazing dad.
I think that I have gushed before about my dad here but let me just say that no matter how hard I try to pay for our lunch dates, the man will not let me buy him lunch. The only thing my dad allows me to do for him is to chauffeur him to the airport and pick him because he doesn’t trust cab people (I always joke with him that even Uhurus driver isnt as learned as his-me) and to send me on some errands and to cook him coastal fish dishes whenever we get together .
When you have such a dad, you really feel for people who don’t have dads or have irresponsible dads. You become so accustomed to a good dad that it’s extremely jarring when you come across stories of men who do not take any responsibility for their own kids. Now that we are in an era of degrees, people who fake them, people who have 20 degrees, lemme talk about my dad’s impact on my higher education.
When I was doing my thesis I went through a difficult period where I wanted to just give up because my professors were giving me hell. I was the only woman in a class of men, to this day none of my classmates have ever graduated because the stress became too much for them and they gave up.
My dad was always asking me how it was going and one time I just told him that I was so exhausted and frustrated that I just wanted to give up. He told me that he had never given up on anything in life that he started and that if I had his blood running in my veins, giving up wasn’t an option.
So I took a break and when I had recharged I got back on the horse. Anyone who has been through the thesis process knows how grueling it gets. It can drive you nuts. It consumes your entire existence. Many women have been known to shave their hair because of the stress.
So finally I got to the second last chapter and I was so happy that I went home to show my dad how far I had come. I was spending the night. So he went out and bought me a pair of shoes. So when I woke up in the morning I found them outside the door to my room. They are old now but I think I will keep them to remind me how proud of me my dad was that night when I showed him my progress.
I don’t think that I have ever seen it in a movie where a dad goes out at night to buy his daughter a pair of shoes because she is almost done with her thesis. So literally my dad is even better than a TV dad.
I found a blog called academia is killing my friends. The stories there are insane. I understood why my male classmates gave up. Writing a thesis in and of itself is no walk in the park but combine it with difficult almost impossible professors and it’s a nightmare. I wanted sympathy from my dad but instead he encouraged me.
Dads just have super powers that can make you believe that you can do anything. You go to them like a rained on cat and you leave as a lion.
Academia is not for the faint of heart. In fact so many people just give up and never look back. I owe my success as the only graduant in my class to many people. Many people helped me but it was my dad who made the difference between me quitting the damn thing and me being the only one who finished in my class. Even my first supervisor/professor was proud of my work. Of course after taking me through a baptism of fire. Long live all the amazing dads.
