25+ Years of Consistency.

Consistency. Well I guess you could call it that. I am someone who does not like a lot change in my life. I am the type of guy that has been wearing the same shoes for about two years and I have had the same style (basketball shorts and a t-shirt) for my entire life. I mean why change something that works? My shoes may be falling apart but they haven't fully died on me. I drove my 94 Toyota Corolla until it literally died on me. I still have the same friends I had since elementary school. There comes a time in our lives where things change and there is really nothing anyone can do about it. As much as I want to I can't live in my parents basement and have them put money on my account anytime I want to go do something. There are things call jobs or something we have to get. We go off to college to prepare our selves for the real world but honestly if the real world is full of (root) beer, late night with friends, intramural sports and minimal work well god damn I am excited. In all seriousness though there are changes I am looking forward too, I can't wait to live in another country for a semester, I can't wait to actually start a job and live on my own and really just get out and experience the world other than the tri-state area.

Mark Twain was onto something when he said "Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whiskey is barely enough" while I can't comment on the whiskey part because I am only 19 but he is right when he says too much of anything is bad. To me that applies to change too, you have to take everything in moderation. To change is to grow at times but you cannot just abandon the things that made you who you were, you shouldn't leave your friends, family or hometown behind just to achieve greater things. Success should not cloud your personality. I like to think I have been changing but at a rate where everyone would recognize my personality if I saw them today after not seeing them since leaving for college.

If there is one person I can look up to who stays true to his roots it has to be my Dad no doubt. That guy is just the man in every aspect of life. My Dad has been a truck driver for UPS since the dawn of time and rose up the ranks to the point where he drives a 24 wheeler and stepped on the plebeians on his way to the top. In his spare time he usually makes me feel like a loser in golf, or wiffle ball for when I was a kid. He might not think I hear his condescending laugh when I hit a ball into the woods or a bunker but I do. One day I will beat him. One day. Though if you look at my Dad the one thing that probably sticks out to you is a visible one. It is something he had since before he even met my Mom. His mustache. Now that thing is pretty much a legend among my friends. It is pretty much to the point where my friends respect his mustache more than respect me as a person but that is something I have accepted. Now as you can see here I am simply just a child but what stands out? The mustache. Even as a baby I couldn't function correctly because I was near such a legend which is evident by my empty stare into space wondering if I can ever match that facial hair. Normally people shave and give into time and change right? My Dad disagrees. To this day he is still more of a man than anyone I know. My Dad just shows that no matter how much life changes around you, you can always stay true to yourself if you work at it. I am sure my Mom complained more than once asking him to shave but my Dad was strong in being himself. In being a man.

I don't really have much of a legend but I am only 19 so I guess I can't really complain. I already have a t-shirt and a mug with my face on it though. I am a scholar and I will go off and do scholarly things with my life but I hope I can still stay true to everything that helped mold the person that I am. There is one thing I have been able to keep consistent and that is my level of swag. I mean look at how good I look as a kid in that Peter Pan outfit? That level of swag has yet to decrease.

 

Baby pictures, baby pictures everywhere!

The point of this blog post? To show everyone how awesome my Dad is and to remind people to stay true to their roots and be themselves no matter how much life changes.

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." - Ralph Waldo Emerson