Yet, none of these remarkable feats made him my hero. It was something seemingly more ordinary, but for me it was everything. He believed in me. Not a nudge on the shoulder saying “hey, you can do it!” kind of belief. A belief that he felt through every fiber of his being, so genuinely that I felt it too. It shaped the person I am today and has made me proud to be, well, me.
He attended every dance recital and
award ceremony. Even though growing
up he lived about an hour away, we had
dinner together at least once per week.
When I won my high school election
and became president of the student
body, he was the first to show up at the
school requesting a visitor’s pass so he
could talk to the advisor about what a
great victory this was, and to see my
new office for the year.
It wasn’t his physical presence though
that demonstrated his belief in me. It
was the lengths he would go not only
to push me until he thought I had done
the best I could do, but also to shout his
beliefs from the rooftops - telling
everyone he knew, and even
sometimes people he didn’t, how
great he knew I was.
Often times as a child and as a teenager.
I would find his support embarrassing.
When you walk into a restaurant to
meet your Grandpa’s friends and they
say “Oh your Grandpa has told us about
…” You’re thinking, Grandpa, do you tell
these people everything? Even the most
mundane (or so I thought) details of my
life happenings and accomplishments
had been shared. It took every ounce of
self control not to give Grandpa
a kick under the table, when we’d be out
celebrating an award and he’d start telling
the waitress about my marks that semester.
When you’re 17 years old and your Grandpa starts grilling the bus boy at the restaurant who he knows you’ve been eyeing, and then when you’re sure the kid is still within earshot, he offers his two cents that you should forget about it. Those are moments you can feel your insides about to bubble out from within, and you feel like you may need a fire extinguisher for your face.
In hindsight, he was right, dude was a total dud.