Where does the time go?
Wyndi and I often get asked how we do what we do, putting in so many hours from week to week and striving to cover as much as we can. I can honestly say the drive comes from example (and I know Wyndi can say the same).
From an early age, I can remember my parents both working hard to provide a comfortable life for me while putting in extra effort to make sure the job is done well, both for themselves and those around them.
I could easily talk about the amount of respect I saw in my dad from his co-workers and how he put his all into volunteer events… But it’s Mother’s Day so that’ll have to do, Dad!
From the age of 4 until I was 12, I attended a private school in San Marcos. We didn’t have a lot of money although my parents did their best to hide that from me. As the only child, I might have been (read “definitely was”) spoiled growing up.
To help with the tuition, Mom worked at the school, serving several years as the Spanish teacher for all grades. I can remember her having to make copies and put assignments together the night before. We’d drive to the school after dark. It was eerie seeing the school light up as we walked to the building to get up to the second-floor teachers’ lounge.
I have no way of counting the numbers of hours she would devote to lesson plans between assembling lessons at home, sorting at the school and extra printing at our local Kinko’s. I can also remember her at hand whenever I had questions about homework and eager to hear me read chapters of “Black Beauty” or whatever the reading assignment was that week.
A good portion of any generosity and volunteerism is due to her as she relished in positions at the church and helping out neighbors. She also often spent money out of her own pocket for fun events and materials for the lessons she taught.
With all of this we often ate out, but Mom had plenty of homemade dishes she would make and I loved the fresh pasta, meatloaf and casseroles she would cook.
As an adult looking back, I am as flabbergasted that my Mom was able to do all that as others are about their schedules. Mom will hear me say a Spanish phrase or sample some of my own cooking and she will ask, “Where did you learn that?” I will laugh and respond, “You taught me.”
What I don’t say nearly enough is “I’m proud of you, Mom.”
— Paul Gaudette is the Managing Editor of The Dublin Citizen and can be reached at publisher@dublincitizen.com.