10 Years Ago Today
Ten years ago today my Dad died! I had just turned 21; now I’m 31! It’s been quite a decade/journey. The regret I usually have is, over the last 10 years, many times, I’d want to ask my Dad what he thought about a situation (like the time I was sued for $30,745, but that’s a story for another day lol). I would throw up my hands and say, “how/why did I never ask him about this?” But in the end I would always figure it out, and I think this helped me develop faster. I honestly don’t think I could have been a Fried Chicken Man any other way (let alone “The” FCM, now world-renowned). I came to learn that my Dad had taught me more than I first thought, but sometimes you’d really have to apply the teachings to figure out that you actually had the answer deep within. In this way, you realize, or at least I did, that some of the people you lose are not really as lost as you think.
These days there is really no pain associated with this period of my life, but there are some lessons stored in the back of my head. I remember it was the Winter of 2010 and he asked me to watch a movie with him. Some film called “Gran Torino.” I was so busy, because I was applying for summer internships at the time, and studying for the GMAT, and I was very stressed because my GPA was too low (2 C’s in Chinese helped bring my freshman year GPA to 2.625, and now I had to bring it back up lol). So I did not have time to watch the movie. But I knew that my Dad’s health was up-and-down and he rarely asked me to do this kind of thing, so I said fuck it I’ll watch the movie with him. That was the last time we ever hung out at our house.
10 years later I literally cannot remember what internships I was applying for or what I was doing, and I even had to search my computer extensively because I couldn’t even remember how low the freshman year GPA got, but I’ve never forgotten watching Gran Torino with him.
This is my way of saying enjoy life and people while you can, but also know that just like all good things come to end, so do all bad things.
George John Jordan Thomas Aquinas Hayward, Optimist
August 8, 2020
