A Birthday Post-It Note

Thinking of you on your birthday, daddio. Sorry I don't have anything much to write...unless you're willing to accept about a thousand pages of educator jargon and gobbledygook that I've been working on for a professional development certificate. Which actually, come to think of it, you probably WOULD accept, since you have always been so supportive of my teaching career. Right when I started the teaching program, you were the one taping PBS specials about education in America and buying used books based on the methodology in which I was interested. Exhibit A: That time you lost your temper because Seashell Booksellers misrepresented the condition of a Marilyn Burns math book and you blackballed them from the Greg Suddeth Educational Encouragement Fund.

I always love to see that blocky print of yours on post-its, so this still decorates the cover. And I still use it. Never gonna forget that I got the call for my first teaching job on your birthday in 2008, and you were so proud. At the time I was disappointed in a part-time job, but the universe knew what it was doing because that was the year my life started going sideways. By the time I was emotionally equipped to run my own classroom, the classroom was waiting for me. And I've loved my job all these years.

Since I was a newborn, you were in my corner, you had my back. You taught me to appreciate naps.

I'm a better teacher and a better human because you are my daddio. So grateful that you were born on August 6. This one's brief, but so full of love and appreciation. You are my light, from somewhere out there. Love you, Greg!