My Father Taught Me

My dad has been a teacher for just about as long as he's been a father, and he's really good at both. And sometimes the two blend into each other—he is a master teacher at home, and a lot of his students have told me that he is "like a father" to them.

I appreciate their sentiments, but part of me wants to respond with, "Yes, but he really is my father." My dad was my teacher at BYU-Idaho, but he was also my ride to school, my tutor, my coach, my friend. He was also the person I spent most of my time with during the summer months we spent at home together, and even though he wasn't working as a teacher between semesters he still taught me and managed to squeeze in some of life's most important lessons.

One of those lessons stands out most in my mind today, probably because it's Father's Day and because this particular lesson has shaped so much of what I do every day. I use it even more than the lessons he taught me about using verbs and punctuation (though there's no arguing those are seriously useful skills).

It was a long summer day like any other, and as the youngest-practically-only child in my family, I was a little bored. Dad asked me to wash and vacuum the car, which I didn't think was much of an improvement over boredom. Luckily for me and for my dad, I thought of something to make the job more bearable.

"So, you want me to just drive it down to the car wash?" I asked.

"No, Bre, I want you to get a bucket and soap and a vacuum and do it yourself."

"But it would be so much faster and easier to just have someone else do it."

Then my dad gave me this one-line lesson that has affected my life ever since:

"Someday, you will have more money than you have time. When that time comes, you can pay someone to wash your car. But right now you have more time than you have money, so you're going to wash it yourself."

And I did wash it myself. I used the vacuum and Armor All and soap and water and Turtle Wax. Next time I got in the car, I was a lot more careful about keeping it clean. And I appreciated the cleanliness more too.

Today, I keep remember that lesson often. I still have more time than I have money, and the older I get the more I realize that will most likely be the case more often than not. When I want to just pick up some dinner because I'm too tired to cook, I think, "Right now I have more time than I have money. So I'd better get cooking." I cut Ryan's hair at home. And yes, we even wash our own car sometimes.

Happy Father's Day, Dad. And thanks for the tip.