May 31: The Parents

A few weeks ago I wrote about witnessing a brother and sister make a silent connection and how it made me miss my own sister. Tonight, a married couple came in to the restaurant and when asked if they had enjoyed their day off, they responded by telling me something about getting to watch their daughter's marching band at UT. It didn't register that they were from out of town until I was walking away from the table. They were proud parents that traveled a long distance to support their daughter and when I made the realization, my emotional strings were again pulled taut.

The couple reminded me so much of my own parents that I felt an immediate connection with them and wanted every aspect of their visit to the restaurant to be an enjoyable one. The mere fact that they were staying in a hotel in a foreign city to visit their daughter at college made me think of all of the love and support that my parents gave (and still give) throughout my life.

With the exception of having to to get their taxes done at the beginning of each season, my parents came to watch every single little league game. I warmed the bench for entire games when I played basketball in high school, but my parents were always in the stands and they were there for every play I did too. My mom sold candy bars, wrapping paper, magazine subscriptions, Easter candy and gift baskets at work to help with various fundraisers. My dad was always there to help build cars and rockets for Pinewood and Space Derbies for Boy Scouts.

When I moved two hours away for college, they drove up at least every other month to visit and buy me necessities and the occasional goody. When I decided to move to Austin on a whim without any of my furniture, it was their idea to drive to my college town, load all of my belongings from a storage unit into a moving van and then drive the 1,400 miles just to help me move in. I have some really heavy possessions which didn't make the ordeal any picnic either!

I just finished having a video chat with my dad where we talked about everything from the right time to purchase life insurance to getting the most out of my surround sound system to the willingness of today's youth to have premarital sex. I've written posts about how open I am with my parents and how I can talk to them about everything under the sun. It's just one more aspect of my relationship with them that I value so much. I hear stories from friends about their lack of a relationship with their parents and I can't even begin to comprehend.

Yes, my parents will read this. Yes, my mom will cry and she'll call me to let me know how much she enjoyed this post. I'm not writing this for them, though. I'm writing it for everyone else that stumbles upon it. Seeing those proud parents at table 210 tonight got me thinking about my own proud parents. I want the world to know that my mom and dad mean the world to me and I miss them terribly.