My dad is one of the funniest and hardest working guys around. He is not perfect, but he’s pretty damn close. My dad came from Vietnam on a fishing boat when he was 16 with two of his sisters. He came here knowing absolutely no English, having to learn while trying to keep up in his high school classes. He got into UC Berkeley’s chemical engineering program, graduated, and went on to work afterwards. Basically, I have a lot of respect for this man. Granted, now his English is a lot better, but he can still be a man of few words. With or without words, he still teaches me a lot. Here are some things he has taught me:

1. How to Learn

This was an easy one to name because he was the one who would try and help me with my homework-- unsuccessfully, but he still tried. I learned the way he would read, rereading sentences that he did not comprehend over and over, each time taking it in with a different understand. He read everything at least twice, trying to get everything he could out of his reading. He taught me that there is always more to learn, more to read, more to ingest. He taught me how to learn with curiosity and passion.

2. How to Understand

With all of this reading, I had to learn how to actually understand what I was reading. He tried to help me unravel the background of what I was reading, to figure out the history. Without knowing the history of politics, no one can to understand the reason behind a move or a law. By understanding history, politics, math, science, and art, you can become a more well-rounded person.

3. How to Persevere

For many years, my parents made me do sports and take piano lessons. They made me go to practice nearly every day and sit through private lessons. There were many times when I thought that my parents were the meanest parents around for making me do all of these things I didn't want to do. Even when I was sick with the sniffles, I was sent to swim practice because my dad believed that being in the water makes you feel instantly better. Only 30 percent of the time was that actually true, but the next day, I usually got sicker. Eventually, it got in my mind that a cold was not a good enough reason to not want to practice. My mentality helped me achieve a successful high school athletic career and academic work ethic.

4. How to Be Patient

Forgiveness has always been something that was hard for me to understand. I could not fathom why people would do things that they knew they would regret. Sometimes, however, it is hard to take a step back and understand what is going on. Watching my dad have to deal with my brother and sister, I learned a lot about how to be patient. It helped me a lot when I taught swim lessons to little kids, and when I went on to be a lifeguard and eventually a swim coach. By being patient with my kids, I was able to have some of the best summers of my life.

5. How to Love

Love is a difficult concept. There are still some things that I cannot understand, but from watching my parents in their marriage, I learned something about it. Love means support and understanding, patience, perseverance, and learning every day. Every day, in every relationship you have, it takes all of these steps to understand love.

Ultimately, my dad taught me a lot about being a person by the way he acted.