Dads are an important parental figure in any young girls and soon to be women’s life. They are there to teach you how to ride your first bike.They are there to teach you how to drive. Dads are the one man you can truly trust to beat any guy up who dares to hurt you. My dad has been an amazing father to me throughout my whole life. I can only hope that I have thanked him and told him how I treasure the many memories we had together growing up, and the ones we will still continue to make. Though the list can go beyond 11 reasons, below are some of the reasons why I love my dad.

1. My Tooth Fairy: Believing in fairytales and things of that nature are a vital part for anyone’s childhood, especially a little girl, so I truly appreciate that for a good amount of years, my dad pretended to be the Tooth Fairy while I was growing up.

2. Our Many Traditions: Looking back, my dad and I had a lot of traditions when I was a kid. One of them was going to Hershey Park every Christmas Eve, or a couple days before it. We would just walk around and see the reindeer and drink hot chocolate. It may not sound like much, but it meant a lot to me, and it was something I always looked forward too.

3. Our Many Traditions pt 2: Another tradition we had was watching ABC’s 25 Days of Christmas together. I have memories of us specifically watching, How the Grinch Stole Christmas together on the couch, and other movies. Traditions like that hold a special place in my heart.

4. Letting Me Hang Out With The Guys: Since I had such a good relationship with my dad, I grew up being a daddy’s girl. The cool things about that was that he would let me tag along with him sometimes to hang out with some of his friends. Card games are a really big deal to us, so sometimes the two of us would go over to his friend’s house and play spades. One of my favorite memories of us being spades partners is when we went to his one friend house, and there may have been about eight people there, give or take, and once we sat at that table, we never got up. We beat the whole house! We were the father-daughter duo, I loved it!

5. Teaching Me How To Drive: My dad is a car guy, so I’m sure that once I was of age, he couldn’t wait to teach me how to drive. I doubt he anticipated how difficult it may have been. But no matter what he stuck with me and made sure I was comfortable behind the wheel of a car.

6. Driving Long Hours For Me: Going off of driving, my dad has driven 10+ hours in a day to taking me to and from college, or picking me up from college to take me home. That speaks volumes for itself. I don’t think anyone realizes how long driving for 10 hours is, until they do it. So I am forever thankful that my dad comes to pick me up whenever he does, and take me home.

7. Teaching Me About Football: One of the things that I don’t like about going to a college five hours away, is that I am not able to watch football games with my family. I love football, and the one person who I have to thank for having this love of football is my dad. My dad has taught me basically everything I know about football, and I would like to think that I am pretty knowledgeable about the sport. If there’s anything that is going to be on the TV on Sunday’s, Monday nights, and Thursday nights, it is football. And even though I am not home to watch football, there have been plenty of times where I have called him to talk about last night’s game.

8. Being Tough on Me: My dad was tough on me growing up, but the good kind of tough. It was the type of tough that prepares you and makes you a stronger person, so I was ok with that.

9. Always Pushing Me: Going off of him being tough on me, he always pushed me to be a better me. He never told me I couldn’t do something- never. He always, always, always, encourages me telling me that I could do anything I could set my mind to.

10. Letting Me Know He's Always Proud: My dad tells me how proud of me his is, all the time. No matter what I do, my dad is never afraid to show me or tell me that he is proud of me, and that makes me happy.

11. Loving Me: Lastly, but surely not least, not having to ever question whether or not my dad loves me, is a good feeling. I know that my dad loves me, and he has shown me or told me that he does in every possible way, so I just hope that he knows that I love him too.