my dad retired at the beginning of this year. after 34 years of working as a radiology technician.
34 years.
basically, for all of my life, my dad has worked the same job. every day. every week. every year.
and not all of those years were easy ones.
the man epitomizes hard work. perseverance. discipline.
when you are young, you don't think to say, "wow, dad. thanks for going to work every day and providing for your family." instead, its something along the lines of, "i wanna go to disneyland." and "why can't we just order pizza instead of eating bean burritos?" or "but everyone else is wearing guess jeans!"
but now that i'm older and wiser, i am more aware of the sacrifices that were made by my dad. the middle of the night calls he had to answer. the less than enjoyable supervisors he had to endure. (like that one who took the vacation that Kodak offered my dad for solving their film problem and the supervisor lied and said my dad didn't want a free vacation to the east coast and took it for himself! the nerve!)
he often walked to and from work so we could have the car that sometimes worked.
and there were all those coins he'd save for us when my sister and i would walk over to the hospital after school to wait for our ride home and we'd go to the gift shop and pick out candy and then sit in the waiting room and watch tv.
or sometimes we'd play in the storage room where everyone's x-rays were filed and we'd pretend we were doctors and stuff. and we'd pull out x-rays and look at them (yeah, serious HIPAA violations here).
and of course there are all those lives he saved.
no really. like the broken necks he noticed that doctors didn't.
yeah. he's amazing.
so anyhow, all of this is to say thank you to my dad. for his hard work. for his example. for his sacrifice. and for all he has done in his life for others.
(its also a chance to hopefully make up for the fact that i didn't send him a card or anything. sorry, i've been a bit busy with my newborn.)
(i also must note that my amazing mom retired last year from her job as a nurse. she is every bit as deserving of a blog tribute about all her sacrifices and lives she saved. or even a card. but it all coincided with my miserable first trimester.)
(clearly, i have plenty of excuses for being completely self absorbed.)
