Like father, like son? Perhaps not all the time

Me with dad and mom during last year's (2010) New Year's celebration.

Just because we didn't end up the way our fathers wanted us to become doesn't mean we've been bad children. I see it as taking another route to success, a route--albeit a different one--ultimately leads us to a place where we'd make our dads proud after all.

Recently, I realized how similar yet so different my father, Nonito, and I are. While my job as a writer in a newspaper is completely different from his job as a seaman, I'd say we're both hardcore workaholic (okay, I have an extra shot of the lazy genes). I also got from dad the “dominant” sort of attitude. But overall, I think the “like father, like son” phrase applies more to my dad and my older brother.

It isn't unusual for fathers to groom their children to take up after them—become the next doctor or lawyer of the clan; someone to take over the family business. Not my dad.

As a seaman, my dad would always tell my older brother and I, while we were growing up, to take up whatever it was in college we wanted (although he did try very hard to persuade us to take up law or medicine—none of which happened, by the way) so long as we don't become seafarers ourselves like him.

According to dad, being a chief engineer (at a cargo ship for more than 30 years now), isn't the most fun job in the world. It was great when he was just starting out, but when he married and had children, being away from land for months on end became more challenging.

I've grown accustomed to dad not being there physically for us. But to be fair to him, his input were always heavily considered before any of us in the family make a major decision—whether it was to have a leaking roof fixed or to just wait for him; to the model of television to buy; or to what school his grandchild should go to.

My friends would always say that we were lucky to have grown up away from drugs or any misconduct many children growing up without fathers get into. I'll have to credit my dad for keeping communication with us without fail.

Suffice it to say, communication between us and my dad has always been vital. Because we would always keep in touch, wherever part of the world he may be (right now he's in the United States), I never once felt the feeling of not knowing him because I haven't seen him for a long time. Whenever my dad comes back home, it's as if he never left. We pick up from where we left off.

Happy Father's Day, dad! Cheers!