Dear Bobby and Lizzy,
My two best word of advice are:
1. find something you love to do as your career. Many Americans dread Monday morning. You will spend a vast portion of your life at work, so choose a career which you will enjoy, even if it pays less than other fields. I used to tell my students to "follow their dreams", but that is probably not sound advice if your dreams are to play professional sports, or to become a professional musician, because the odds of achieving your dreams are very low. After all, you need not forego your dreams by having a good back-up plan;
2. when it is time to choose a life partner, choose someone who is fundamentally kind. The way to tell about their kindness is to go to a restaurant with them and watch how they treat the busboy---do they acknowledge and thank him, or do they ignore him and only acknowledge the waiter?
If you only remember two things I told you, make it those two and your life will be much happier. Of less importance, but still worth remembering:
3. surround yourself only with friends who genuinely respect and support you. There are many insecure people who will seek your company and purport to be your friends, but instead of bolstering you, they bring you down. You can pity them and help them if you like, but limit your time with them and recognize that they are not trustworthy;
4. give more than you take, and your value to this world has been established. Help those in need, find opportunities to perform acts of kindness, bring positive energy to every meeting you attend, treat the environment with respect---these are such simple and self-evident values, but it is easy to lose sight of their importance. In the long run, these will form and inform your legacy.
Love,
Dad
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
For Bobby and Lizzy
I begin this blog for my children, Bobby and Lizzy. While I hope to live a long time, I was reminded of my mortality recently, and I want to leave this journal behind, to remind you both of how much I love you, and how proud I am of you. I also hope that my words can provide comfort and guidance when I am no longer here.
The title I chose, "vista alta", is intended to convey the idea that life is best understood from a high view, and not from the challenges and setbacks which we all must periodically face. At the moment, my distant vision is blurry, a troubling byproduct of my diabetes. But even if my vision deteriorates, and even if my life is shortened by this insidious illness, I have had an exceptionally rich life, and am grateful beyond description. I cannot convey how proud I am of Bobby, who graduates UCLA in June with an outstanding academic record and a good shot at Yale Law School, and of Lizzy, who transfers to UCSD this Fall, to begin the next phase of her own academic journey.
Perhaps I should begin by telling you a little about your old man, though I doubt that any of this will be new to you. I am the proud son of two great parents(grandpa Amador and grandma Josie) who came to the US from Mexico with an 8th grade education, and a determination to provide their kids with a good education. My sister, your aunt Hilda, owns and runs a Minuteman Press in Long Beach. My brother, your uncle Amador, owns a shipping container business also based in Long Beach. I am very proud of both of my siblings.
I am also proud of my own accomplishments. After earning my Bachelor's degree, I worked my way through law school, receiving my Juris Doctorate, followed by a Master's in Business and Tax Laws. I have now practiced law for over twenty-six years. In the early years, I practiced law full-time and taught law part-time(at CSUS and the University of Northern California School of Law). In 1991(the year Lizzy was born!), I accepted a full-time teaching position at Sierra College, and I scaled back my law practice to part-time. I taught and practiced law at Sierra for fifteen years, until accepting an appointment as Associate Dean of Business and Technology. I am currently the Dean of that division, and my goal is to become a college president by the time I reach the age of sixty. For that reason, I will begin studies at UC Davis toward a doctorate in educational leadership.
I wish that I knew more about our family history to share with you. Grandpa Amador used to say that we are descendants of the Aztec indians, but I would love to conduct a genealogical study to learn the specifics of our predecessors.
I'm going to keep this first post---and perhaps every post--- short, so that it does not tax your interest or my attention span.
Love,
Dad
The title I chose, "vista alta", is intended to convey the idea that life is best understood from a high view, and not from the challenges and setbacks which we all must periodically face. At the moment, my distant vision is blurry, a troubling byproduct of my diabetes. But even if my vision deteriorates, and even if my life is shortened by this insidious illness, I have had an exceptionally rich life, and am grateful beyond description. I cannot convey how proud I am of Bobby, who graduates UCLA in June with an outstanding academic record and a good shot at Yale Law School, and of Lizzy, who transfers to UCSD this Fall, to begin the next phase of her own academic journey.
Perhaps I should begin by telling you a little about your old man, though I doubt that any of this will be new to you. I am the proud son of two great parents(grandpa Amador and grandma Josie) who came to the US from Mexico with an 8th grade education, and a determination to provide their kids with a good education. My sister, your aunt Hilda, owns and runs a Minuteman Press in Long Beach. My brother, your uncle Amador, owns a shipping container business also based in Long Beach. I am very proud of both of my siblings.
I am also proud of my own accomplishments. After earning my Bachelor's degree, I worked my way through law school, receiving my Juris Doctorate, followed by a Master's in Business and Tax Laws. I have now practiced law for over twenty-six years. In the early years, I practiced law full-time and taught law part-time(at CSUS and the University of Northern California School of Law). In 1991(the year Lizzy was born!), I accepted a full-time teaching position at Sierra College, and I scaled back my law practice to part-time. I taught and practiced law at Sierra for fifteen years, until accepting an appointment as Associate Dean of Business and Technology. I am currently the Dean of that division, and my goal is to become a college president by the time I reach the age of sixty. For that reason, I will begin studies at UC Davis toward a doctorate in educational leadership.
I wish that I knew more about our family history to share with you. Grandpa Amador used to say that we are descendants of the Aztec indians, but I would love to conduct a genealogical study to learn the specifics of our predecessors.
I'm going to keep this first post---and perhaps every post--- short, so that it does not tax your interest or my attention span.
Love,
Dad
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