I had heard a lot of these words from my dad before, they never seemed to stick; maybe I wasn’t ready to listen? Maybe I didn’t care, or hadn’t realized it myself, but today they stuck. They stuck like crazy glue, I was on the same page, this was what I had been thinking; it all coincided with the conclusions I had made.

They were pragmatic, reasonable, simple and straight forward. As my father told me these things I wondered where they were coming from, how they were coming at this time. Sure we had been at work, sure we had talked about jobs, sure I was looking for a job, but this all seemed too coincidental. My personal philosophy was evolving; it had evolved to this point, my father was the messenger. Putting all the conclusions I’d recently realizing into a story that made sense, I could finally understand.

I liked my father, loved him in fact, but that’s not how things were in the past. In the past our relationship was different, I would have never taken him seriously. Thinking back; there was a time, there was a moment. I met a girl, she had said things similar to what dad was saying now; it had thrown me off at the time but now it all made sense.

Throughout the conversation I listened closely to what my father had to say; he had lots of advice: work hard, do your best, do what needs to be done, set goals, and don’t expect anything to be given to you on a silver platter. Expect to work hard to get what you want. He also had a lot to say about finding a job and making a good impression.

He said, “If you complain, or can’t do a simple task, why would you expect more responsibility? Why would someone give you something more difficult, if you can’t do what is easy? You’ve got to give it your all, no matter what you are doing”.

Dad joined the army after high school; he quickly realized that he didn’t want that life, so he joined the police force. He started at the bottom and worked his way up through the ranks; he worked as a detective in the organized crime unit for many years, longer than usual. “I worked hard and they liked me; that’s why I got to stay.” His philosophy was simple, “If you want to succeed and get somewhere, you have to work for it.”

Dad grew up on a farm, his father worked long shifts and wasn’t around very much; the farm was hard work and took lots of time. His family was poor, but those were the times; if he had to bring $5 to school, his family had half as much money for groceries that week. On school days he would get up at 5 am and do chores; when he was finished he went to school. After school he went to his job, some nights he wasn’t home till midnight. He’d come home do his homework then go to sleep, doing it all over again the next day. He had a hard childhood, it was lots of work. He didn’t get a lot of the things kid’s of today take for granted, but his life did teach him an incredible sense of responsibility. It made him strong, and gave him the drive needed to succeed in life.

When dad was young, he told his mother that his dream was to be a millionaire; at the time it may have seemed like a difficult dream, but now it was his reality.

My dad is rich; he has enough money to buy anything he wants, and for the most part, he does. Only problem is he has to work hard for it, in fact he works so much that he hardly has the time to use any of the things he owns. For a long time I resented my father, for what reason I’m not sure. I used to say it was his lifestyle, and thought that that was the only thing he cared about. That may be true, but it isn’t all the truth.

While waiting for our spicy food we talked about work, jobs and money; this was the topic because I was looking for a job, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I told dad that I found it necessary to have some sort of material goal; without one I don’t have any drive. Dad in his wisdom said, “If it works, use it.” That’s how things should be, live and learn; otherwise we’d never get better at anything.

Dad said, “Kids think they can graduate from University and become the CEO, but that’s not how thing work. It takes hard work and time to get to that place.” I had been told this many times; my dad had worked hard to get where he was and he pointed it out. “I graduated from high school and that was the education I got. Everything I have accomplished has been because of hard work; that’s how success needs to be achieved.” Hard work was necessary, but it never seemed to stick. If we could achieve all of our goals without hard work, what would be the point?

One Wednesday night my father and I went to the mall so he could buy snow pants for his yearly traditional of a weekend snowmobiling trip. After we left the mall, it was dinner time, so my Dad asked, “what do you want to eat?’ Thinking quickly I suggested, “Something Asian maybe, Thai or Indian.” Driving around for a while, there were so many places, everyone the same, but none of them were Asian. After another 15 minutes we past a shopping center and I noticed a brightly coloured neon sign that looked oriental; I pointed it out and we turned into the parking lot.

There was no one else in the restaurant, it was empty, aside from the staff, we were seated quickly and handed menus. After a few minutes we made our decisions and the waitress took our orders, she left and while waiting for our food, we talked.

My father and his wife are wealthy, probably the richest people I know; they have a ranch in the country. The house is massive, indoor pool, sauna, hot tube, seven bathrooms and an ingenious kitchen with an industrial gas stove top, 8 elements and 2 ovens. I love to cook and the kitchen is perfect for it, especially the stove, it’s better than anything I have ever used. They own two German made luxury cars, a two door sports car, and a pickup truck for farm work. The property consists of many acres, a barn, and fenced in fields to keep the horses in check.

Monday morning I headed to the office, ironically by car the office was only 35 minutes away, but by public transportation, my method, it took almost two hours. Two hours was a long time, too much time I thought. It’s too bad that public transportation is slow and inconvenient. On the other hand it is a great idea; it’s cheap and better for the environment. It’s a pain in the ass, that’s why most people don’t use it if they can afford anything else.

On my way to the office, I decided to get out into the fresh air after the Go-Train but before the subway.

After wandering around for a while, I headed to the closest subway station, down the stairs, paying the fare and waiting on the crowded platform for the next train. I eventually got to the end of the line, walked off the train and around the mob crowding the escalator. Up the stairs and to the surface, it was freezing outside and I could feel the cold air drying out my skin.

By the time I got to the office it was almost 3 pm; walking in, I headed to the back offices and talked to my dad. He gave me some work to do, sorting, filling and organizing, nothing exciting or fun. It was work, which meant money, which meant PlayStation 3.

Spending the rest of the week doing filing and sorting, it wasn’t hard, but it was time consuming.