Wednesday, April 3, 2013

When My Father Didn't Have My Hand, He Had My Back

Ever since Ali started working late so much I've been spending lots of time at my parents, which could be really fun with Mom completely spoiling me and making me feel like I'm five again, but then can get really exhausting with all the driving and the maniacs of drivers yelling on the streets.

Dad has been asking me to buy him shoes from amazon for ages and I keep forgetting, finally I remembered! only I remembered at midnight and we started looking at shoes and ended buying seven pairs for him and mom and at some point we started talking about drilling (Petroleum wells that is), I probably never mentioned this before but my dad is one of the smartest people I've ever known,he knows everything there is to know about anything Petroleum related and he's so passionate about it and loooooooves it when someone asks him anything and although I didn't understand half the things he said I was smiling the whole time because as the time goes by the times that i see that twinkle in his eyes becomes less and less, so when i do see it I just want to sit there and smile, I don't want to interrupt him I just want to take a mental picture of how happy he looks while talking.

The other day I was telling Ali about this, are we ever going to do something we're passionate about? Am I ever going to have a job where I feel accomplished? Will my kids ever see that twinkle in my eyes?? and will they ever feel the same way I feel about my father? I always have this overwhelming sense of joy when I so proudly say "I'm Abdulilah Al-Zubaidy's daughter" despite the fact that I've always been against him helping me, carrier wise, and I even go by a different last name so that no one recognizes me, but for some reason it's always interesting to see the look on people's face when I do tell them.

The never ending sense of security that he and mom always managed to keep us under even during the worst of times is something I will forever be grateful for and I just hope that one day when I have my own kids I get to make them feel like no matter what happens I will always be there for them, because that's how I felt growing up. I was always ready to be challenged and was never scared to jump into anything because I knew that the minute I fall someone will be there to catch me, hold my hand and walk me through anything if I ask,  correct me when I'm wrong and will never care if I thought I was too old for advice.

He Turns 71 next month and despite how much we argue and how much we drive each other crazy, (which by the way I think it's only because we're so similar) he will always be my first love, my hero, my friend and confidant and by far the coolest guys I've ever met and he accomplished everything without Google or Wikipedia!