Sunday, October 17, 2010

Moving Right Along--Day Fifteen: A Moment That Changed My Life

 You may have noticed I skipped day fourteen. To the question "what is the best mashup I've heard", I had no good reply (is there one?), and I didn't feel like making one up. So, moving along. . .

   For those of you who know me, and hear me rant on a regular basis (*cough* McKay and Cara *cough*), this story is old school, and you've heard it at LEAST ten times, because I have a bad habit of repeating things over and over and over (and over!). But this really is a moment in my life where I had one of those "Oh, crap, I'm a horrible person and now I'm going to shape up!" dealios.

  My Dad has these ophthalmologist (meaning "eye surgeon") convention things every year or two, and when I was about eight or nine, it was in Florida. So, we kids got a week off of school to basically die and go to heaven. Or, rather, Disney World, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Universal Studios, and the beach.  It was pretty much one week of pure bliss away from my grouchy fourth grade teacher, who (whom?) I had once accidentally called "Mom". Did I mention the teacher was an ex-military man? Anyhoos, I was having a fantastic time.

  When we were at Epcot, Dad went off to get us some food (pretty much the best thing about Epcot-- food EVERYWHERE!) and Mom muttered for me to say "thank you" when he came back. I remember with painstaking detail how forcefully I rolled my eyes so that Mom couldn't miss it. But when Dad came back, I managed to give a cheery "Thanks, Dad!".

  He gave a huge sigh and said with a warmth I will never forget, "It is SO great to have kids who say 'thank you' without being reminded."

  Can you say "worst child ever"? I felt TERRIBLE. I couldn't look at Mom, so I'm not sure if she appeared smug or not, but I couldn't blame her if she did. It felt like at that moment, I had an overload of scenes zipping through my head of all the nice things Dad had done, not only that week (though that was plenty to go off of), but for my whole life that I'd never really thanked him for. What an ingrate I was, and I had never realized it until that moment! I never had really thought that saying "thank you" made any kind of difference. It was just two words, why did it matter if I remembered to say it or not? But Dad's kind reaction might as well have been a slap in my spoiled face.

  Anyway, I always try to say "thank you" right away now. I'm so grateful to know so many people in my life to be grateful to. I don't know how to wrap this up without getting even cheesier, so I'll stop now.

1 comment:

  1. Wow. That was really profound. The biggest thing I remember from Epcot was the Troll log flume ride that went backwards.

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