Growing Up Geek: My Awesomely Creative Dad
Since it was Father's Day this past weekend I thought it would be appropriate to talk about my dad, who is a pretty awesome guy. I feel very grateful to have a dad like him. There's so much I can say about him, but I'm going to focus on his creativity and imagination for now, since it had a big impact on me.
My dad is an actor and singer with a really amazing voice. His passion for movies is one of the main reasons that that I got into film. It's one of those passions of his that he shared with me growing up, and now I share it with my own kids. It's always fun going to the movies with my pops.
There's a lot of creativity and imagination that runs in our family. That came from my dad and his brothers. All that creativity rubbed off on my brothers and I. It seems like we're always in a creative mood.
I have a lot of memories of things my dad did for me when I was a young rambunctious kid. He used to make me my Christmas gifts! He was very into fantasy and I remember one year he made me a custom medieval shield and a sword. It was the coolest thing ever, and I wish I had pictures of it, but all I have are the fun memories of playing with it and pretending I was a knight fighting dragons. He was doing cosplay back when cosplay was just called dressing up.
There was another time he made me a huge castle playset out of Popsicle sticks. You know those custom LEGO builds that people do these days for stuff like Lord of the Rings and Star Wars? Well my dad was doing stuff like that but with freakin' popsicles and it was amazing! Those things my dad made for me were better than anything he ever bought me over the years. He even built a castle style bunk bed for me and my brother!
Halloween is my dad's favorite holiday which was insanely fun. For years he would turn the front yard of our house into a creepy-ass adventure for trick 'r treaters. He decked it out with all kinds of amazing Halloween goodies that included monsters, demons, skeletons, and witches that he would make himself. These things were terrifying and he would put a lot of effort into making sure the neighborhood kids would go home and have nightmares. Of course my brothers and I would get into it as well and involve ourselves with scaring the kiddies.
These are just a few of a ton of other memories that I have with my dad. I really enjoyed having a dad like this growing up. He's such a huge reason that I am the way I am today. He's not only creative though. He's always been there when I needed him. He's honest, knowledgable, goofy, supportive, charitable, and can be extremely funny.
What are some of the things that you love about your own dads?