My Dad

Many claim to have the best dad in the world. What exactly are the criteria for this?

The society dictates that fathers should be the family’s providers. My dad is indeed one great provider. Since he grew up in a monetarily challenged household, he tried his best and worked hard to give us more than what we need. But my dad didn’t just give us what money could buy; he is a loving father and husband as well. He helped my mom to raise us well. He is a strict dad, but you can still reason with him especially if you use your charm (wink!).My dad had a stressful work life. I remember him going home at night or from out of town trips exhausted, but he made sure to spend his time with his family. He freed his weekends to cook for us. We are always pleased with our dad’s cuisine. He is a superb cook. He meticulously prepares his specialties like kare-kare and caldereta. Sunday is truly a family day for us, which is spent hearing mass and eating out together.

Father’s Day has made me think about my dad. He has a lot of great qualities that I am very proud of. For one, he is very intelligent. It amazes me how he almost knows everything from History, Math, English, Science… ask him and you’ll be blown away just as he could answer nearly all the questions in the game show Jeopardy or how he always finishes his crossword puzzles. I remember when I was still a student when we had homeworks in “talasalitaan” that cannot be found on the very limited Filipino-English dictionary, he would answer it on the spot. He is also an artist. Art projects aren’t a problem when I was a kid. Even if my dad would arrive late at night and I still needed a drawing to be done, I wouldn’t worry because when I would wake up my drawing will be beaming on the table. My dad wanted to take up Fine Arts when he was young but the lack of finances made him take up marketing instead. So for our part, he made sure that we took up the course/s that we really wanted.

One of my fondest childhood memories with my dad is watching cartoons. I think it was both his stress-reliever and bonding time with his kids. He would rent our VHS tapes and we would watch together. Now that he’s retired and cable tv is here, we still enjoy our cartoon marathons. It always cracks me up when he imitates cartoon characters like Spongebob and Peter Griffin of Family Guy. You may not believe it but my dad is a comedian. He always makes us laugh with his funny jokes, gestures and impersonations. I wrote in one of my previous blogs that my dad and I are closer now and we continue to be closer everyday. He is not as strict as before and I love spending time with him.

Is Jesus M. Lorenzana the best dad in the world? I couldn’t really claim that, but in my world, he certainly is. Happy Father’s Day, daddy, I love you! Thank you for everything you’ve done. You are my idol and I am so proud to be your carbon-copy daughter!