Father has taught me many things over the years, sports, sarcasm, and to go against the grain. He never cared what anyone else thought, he was him and apologized for nothing. I grew up with people looking at my father weird, because he did weird things. He never questioned social norms. That did not stop him from acting outside of them, though.

1. Never Take A Serious Picture

The smiling thing is so overdone. Father has taught me to show much fun you're having with more than just an artificial smile, but with something that's going to make you smile when you look back on it. If you're not laughing right after you take the picture, then how do you know you're even having fun?

2.Always Surprise People

Dad has a habit of doing things to make people question if he even knows social norms. Thanks to the Fat Man for showing me that there's a life outside of social norms, I'm constantly keeping people on their toes, always asking what I'll do next.

3.Never Care Who’s Watching

This picture was actually taken across from a Kay's with people staring at Father and I, because he went "Shaina! I have a picture idea, I saw it on the internet!" The man has never really shown me any signs of embarrassment and has often told me not to care what people think or say as long as I'm having fun with it.

4.Play With Your Food

I remember Father challenging me to a pie eating contest in a restaurant once, we had pie all over our faces (I'm pretty sure I won). We also pretend to eat each other's arms once because we spilled food on them . . . the wait staff wasn't as amused as we were.

5.All The World’s A Playground

Shakespeare famously said "All the world's a stage, and we are all players," Father taught me that all the world's a playground, and we are all children at heart. So we find every opportunity to play. In this particular instance I just really wanted to play a real-life version of Angry Birds . . . no matter what the employees said . . .

6. Dress For You, No One Else

My Father has always had his own sense of style, it always represented exactly who he is. He taught me to dress the way I want, not to conform to what society deems appropriate. I actually found out upon arriving at college that my business casual is everyone else's casual, and apparently it's weird to wear pj's around. I don't care, however, what you think of me merely based on my attire so I'm going to continue to wear whatever I feel like (usually the first pair of sweat pants and shirt I find in the morning along with my beanie and converse I've had since the 7th grade).

7.Life Is Hardly Ever Serious

My Father will probably never have an ulcer, although, with the amount of stress he has I'm surprised he hasn't developed one yet. He takes every opportunity he can to be silly, and teaches us that life is fully of "shoots and giggles" moments. The man literally goes out of his way to be ridiculous. He never ceases to make everyone around him laugh hysterically, I only wish to obtain that great power one day.

8. Money Does Not Determine Your Worth

Dad always made any place the only place you wanted to be. We couldn't have had more fun anywhere than we had just playing in our own yard. He taught us it's not what you have that determines your worth; it's how hard you work, how honest you are, and how good of a person you can be. The things that define us are not our material things, but the memories we have, the fun we share, and going to bed at night knowing that we did our best to earn what we got - including the respect of others.

9. Embarrass Everyone

Have you ever karate fought a random Madi Gras clown (that's an employee, not Dad, by the way) at Universal while dressed like Superman? It's a lot of fun, and people you don't even know take pictures. Father got into the habit of informing me we would be going to Universal by going "Hey Shaina, put your Superman outfit on." The day would be full of people asking me for pictures, and me arguing with employees as to why it's silly that they would tell me I can't wear the outfit because people think I'm part of the attraction (a Marvel attraction, people, seriously), and my running around yelling "Here I come to save the day! Superman is on his way!" (which is actually the Mighty Mouse theme song but who cares - not us).

10. Never Apologize For Who You Are

Now that's a handsome - and very purple - family. We're not big on apologizing to you for our wild shenanigans. It's just one more thing the Fatty taught us, never apologize for being who you are. I will never pretend to be something or someone I'm not to please anyone else. It's one of the greatest lessons Dad ever taught me. I live by it every day as I go out of my way to be weird.

Against the grain seems to be Father's way of life. He never really stopped to think if what he was doing was socially acceptable, he never really cared if it was. He taught us many valuable things, things that we didn't realize we would be using for the rest of our lives . . . like folding towels . . . and dressing weird. Perhaps through me he can teach you as well, to go against the grain.

Tschüss!