With Father’s Day tomorrow I wanted to take a moment to pay tribute to my dad, June Jones. There is something to be said about a father’s love and the impact it can have on a daughter, more specifically the impact it had on me. The love to and from a father is such a different dynamic to me.
Many of you may have followed my dads career in sports through the NFL and now into college football. I never grasped that he was “famous” or who he was probably until I was in Hawaii and I think that was mainly because the island was so small everything was exponentially focused on him and the Warriors. (amazing time by the way!)
To many people he is a great coach on the field, to me it is the work he does off the field and the lives he has impacted that has guided and inspired me to want to do the same. Since I have been older, and have been able to interact with him as an adult I truly think he is a large source of the focus and drive that I have. I know he always thinks I just want to come eat at the nice restaurants and get free dinner when he goes out with his friends and the other coaches – (and that may be partially true), but what I love most is to hear my dad talk about his experiences through out his life. He lights up when he talks about his players and it inspires me to want to create and enact the change he is enacting in their lives.
My dad and I are exactly the same, which is why we often butt heads, but also why now that I am a bit older I am able to really admire and listen to his advice. I hate to admit it, but he may have only been wrong once or twice when it has come to things I have asked. He is very direct, and he has tried to enact tough love at times, but as the youngest daughter let’s be realistic you know I have him wrapped around my finger just as much as he does me!
Through the toughest times in my life, and trust me there have been some tough times, I didn’t always have this level of a head on my shoulders, my dad has looked me dead in the eyes and said “your sins are my sins”. He took the burden of the hardships and everything I was going through and put them on his shoulders and to me that is true love.
I am forever grateful for the love and support my dad has given and continues to give to me. He is a huge inspiration behind Building A Dream – he lives this day in and day out. Happy Fathers Day!
