for my dad.

if there was one thing my dad was always going to do, it was get me out of doing my chores by taking me on an adventure.

naturally, this bothered my mom to no end: i was a messy kid who left her clothes strewn about her room, rarely made her bed, and left empty cups on my desk and by the side of the bed (so much so, that my family dubbed me, “cuppy”). so, when the weekend came and i had all of the time in the world to finally clean up my room, my mom put me to work.

not only was i a messy kid, i was also totally and completely untalented at cleaning: i still, to this day, cannot fold a fitted sheet. scrubbing the baseboards? i’d rather take a nice, long nap on a busy highway. make my bed every morning? replace the water in my coffeemaker with extra-strength bleach. i don’t like to do the things i’m not good at — and i think my dad picked up on that pretty quickly.

so, on the weekends, when my room was messy and the steam started flowing from my mother’s ears, my dad would sweep in to save my day by telling my mom he needed help picking out mulch at lowe’s. what can i say? at the ripe age of ten, i was a mulch expert.

freed from the shackles of pine sol and vacuum cleaners, my dad would take me with him as he ran his errands every weekend. he’d go to the bank, drive to a hardware store, pick up some tools (or, like, mulch), occasionally grab a free hot dog from the random free hot dog stand inside of home depot, then take me out for a happy meal lunch before bringing me back home to do my chores.

although i still had to clean my room and scrub the bathroom when i got back, those errand-running, mulch-scented mornings made those chores a little more bearable.

one day, my mom was particularly animate about getting the house in order. her friend was visiting from out of town, and she wanted our house to look as though people didn’t live there. as soon as i woke up on the fateful saturday afternoon, my mom said to me as i ate my cereal, “you’re going to help me clean today.”

well, shit. is there a highway nearby i can curl up on?

luckily, my dad was in the kitchen making his smoothie. without missing a beat, i’ll never forget him saying something like, “i actually need julianna to come with me today to help me test-drive a car.”

we didn’t need a new car. this was a fake-out mission, and i was in.

i ate the rest of my cereal, threw on my clothes, and ran out of the house with my dad. it was a rainy day, and he told my mom he’d come back around lunch time, but deifnitely before dinner.

he lied.

instead of test driving a car, my dad drove us to the only sonic in western pennsylvania, a cool 40ish minutes from my house. we ate the carhop food as my dad played the alternative-rock radio station he always did, the one that would influence so much of my music taste without even realizing it.

while we feasted on burgers and mozzarella sticks, my dad noticed that there was a rainbow peeking through the hills and trees. and like he was a kid again, he said to me as he buckled his seatbelt, “i wonder if we can actually find the end of that rainbow.”

from there, we drove for what felt like hours, laughing as we turned down back roads and listened to music, trying to find the end of the rainbow before it faded into the clouds. after a while, the colors vanished and the sun came out, and it was time to go home.

when we got back, my mom was obviously annoyed. it was past dinner time, the chores were almost done, and my mom’s friend would be coming in only a few short hours. she was mad, and that didn’t matter — i spent the day with my dad, and it was the happiest day of that ten-year-old girl’s life.

when i think about my dad on a day like father’s day: it’s these memories that come to mind first. my dad, despite his age, has always been someone who celebrated, craved, and created adventure. whether it was something as small as free hot dogs, or as big as a week-long cruise vacation, my dad would never let us skip out on an opportunity to have fun.

when the time came to choose a college, i had my heart set on a university across the country from my family in a state i had never been to before. and instead of discouraging me from following my dream, he booked an 18-hour trip to california so i could tour my dream school. and when the time came to make the choice, my dad stood up for me when i pressed “accept” on the college portal. despite the fact that his only daughter was choosing to move 3,000 miles away, he never held me back. he encouraged me to chase it. that’s the kind of man he is.

not only is my father goofy, he’s kind. and smart. and cultured — these aren’t things many would think on the surface. my dad would take the shirt off of his back and the shoes off of his feet for a stranger. he’s the first person to choose an obscure independent film over a blockbuster, and would pair it with some pretty well-thought-out commentary. he taught me how to use chopsticks, not my asian family members. my dad’s spirit is adventure, and he’s inspired all of us to live the exact same way.

my dad traveled a lot for work, and while i was lucky enough to travel with my family on lots of vacations, my dad went through a period of flying several times a month when i was young. i didn’t even know what my dad did for a living. all i knew was he had to fly somewhere for a couple of days, and when he’d come back, i’d get to run errands and go on adventures with him again. and i liked that.

still, to this day, my dad continues to take my family on adventures and fill our lives with laughter, good food, great music, and memories to last a lifetime. and i am so incredibly lucky that he does.

my dad is my best friend. he makes me laugh when i’m down, shows me new music and movies when i’m feeling uninspired, offers the best advice anyone could get, and always lets us order an appetizer (or two, or three) at dinner. and he does it all without asking for anything in return.

i have the soul of my mom, but the adventurous, hungry, creative, and relentlessly eager spirit of my dad, and i wouldn’t have it any other way.

i hope that someday, i can make adventures out of the mundane, too.