Hi there, Student Blogger here again! – I know! I’m sorry! I’m a day late for Father’s Day, but please hear me out as I will be sharing a throwback of me and my Dad’s journey together to celebrate Father’s Day.
We write the year 1999. The year that Pokemon arrived on European shores. The time where a former Grade 1 student turned into a Pokemon Trainer with the mission to catch them all. Fitting with the release of the Pokemon Sword and Shield games for the Nintendo Switch last July 17, 2020, I have a quick throwback and retrospective look at the times far before I’ve become the person that I am today.
I consider myself a rather decently learned hooman being. I feel like I can keep up in conversations on an intellectual and logical level with other people. Part of it, I’ll always credit to my early days as a Pokemon Trainer rummaging through the Kanto and Johto regions in my Pokemon Red and Pokemon Crystal games. I couldn’t quite read well yet, but I could comprehend enough to get me through these games effectively. I’d like to think I’ve learned a lot in terms of trial and error, perseverance and endurance because of those Game Boy titles. (I mean come on, for the uninitiated who had no idea what was coming, that Miltank almost made me quit Pokemon. After a bit, of course, I realized that I could just use Smoke Screen or Sand Attack to circle around her rolling me out to death.
But really though. This wasn’t quite the highlight of my younger years in today’s retrospection.
Mathematics and My Father
My college math skills are nothing to write home about. I hate Algebra. However, I’ve built a very strong foundation with the basics in mathematics thanks to my father, I guess.
One of the greatest memories that I have of him is him taking me to school almost every day. We lived in Germany back in the day. Instead of riding a jeep or even a car to school (btw, jeeps are non-existent there), we would ride a bicycle to school. There’s a little twist to it though. I was not allowed to ride the bicycle if I get even one of his questions wrong. They would usually revolve around simple mathematical problem solving, some division but mostly multiplication. I’d always complain what the point of all this is. I’d say but I answered this correct last time. I know this shit already and stuff. This is a fond memory that I recall because, to some extent, I am trying to instill the basic mathematical ingenuity the way my dad did to me in my daughter as well (damn, not even sure if this sentence is correct, but I hope you get the gist).
A throwback of The Student Blogger with his Dad. Georg Squared, on Father’s day.
It is a memory because even though it was all play and fun, it made me understand that even one mistake, despite doing multiple things correct, could make or break a person or a situation. I could get 9 answers right only to fail on the last 1 and that would mean I couldn’t ride the bike. School is not that far away, but it sucks to push the bike along instead of riding it. Today, in retrospect it dawned on me that it also taught me that despite making mistakes, there are ways to come back, ways to make amends.
Definitely, these are things we only realize in hindsight. These are small things how our parents or guardians want to prepare us for what lies ahead. But I hope that our current generation, those reading this post here now, will carry with them. It’s not just the academic aspect that we need to teach the next generation, but we need to have the foresight to prepare them for the road ahead – despite their young age.
Last Note On Father’s Day
Hence, the fondest memory that I have of my dad, despite our differences in his twilight years… Is… That despite the good I’ve done, there are times that people will see the bad only. With his mental impairment and him not being himself for good 1-2 years before his passing, I had to battle being out of favor and being seemingly wrong with everything I’ve been doing in my life. However, that’s not the end of it. Life goes on. Eventually, on his death bed, we made amends. And just how my dad would say people come and go (he left, Theya came), he would say that it’s never too late to try and be better than you were before. It’s never too late to make up for mistakes you’ve done in life.
Just like this post, being published a day after Father’s Day.
It’s never too late.
Leave a Reply