There’s One Man That I Will Always Love…and Who Will Never Break My Heart

In the midst of ups and downs and male woes that I could write a 10 book series about…there is one man who still stands out among the rest. And after 27 years…he is still the best. My father is one of the strongest men out there. He left his family at the age of 19 years old, knowing that he may never see them again, to join a cause that he believed in…and that was to fight for his country. During that journey he met and fell in love with my mother, who was of a different tribe and spoke a different language…and won her over with his shy smile. And almost 29 years later…he is loving her still. He fathered 5 children…while working numerous jobs, learning English, and getting his degree.

My father is not the richest man…he is not the smartest man…he is not the strongest man…but he has taught me more about life, then the richest, smartest, or strongest man ever could.

He has taught me that you can start a new life with not a penny to your name. My father came to the United States with absolutely NO money and NO connections. He started working right away and made $5 a DAY!! He now owns his own home, car, put himself through community college, maintains a steady job, and still managed to put 3 children through higher education. If my father has achieved this much from so little…I know that money is not an obstacle unless you make it one.

He has taught me that knowledge is power and it’s the type of power that no one can take away from you. If you don’t have the knowledge, then you do what you need to do, to achieve that knowledge. My father may not have an architect’s degree, but he helped build his own home. He may not have a mechanic’s license, but my father knows how to fix everything from an oil filter change to spare parts. My father may not be an agricultural specialist, but his little garden grows everything that can be found at the grocery store. He may not have a linguistic degree, but he speaks 6 languages: Rade, Jarai, Vietnamese, French, English and Thai. And I could go on and on. I wonder how many people with PhD’s could compete with a man who holds knowledge as vast as my father’s.

He has taught me that strength is not found in height, muscle, or weight….it is found in the heart. I believe that the heart is the strongest muscle in the human body. It is the only thing that can break over and over again…and not only endures, but grows stronger afterward.  He has seen his country fall, his comrades die, and lost his family and friends at a young age. But he has grown to love another country, made new friends, and been the father that he never had. I hope I inherited half the heart that my father has.

So HAPPY FATHER’S DAY to my Ama (father) and all the other father’s just like him!!