[Golden_Rhino]

- My dad has worked 60 hours a week for my whole life. Me and my sister had all the stuff the other kids has because my dad worked like a mule.

- My dad taught himself to speak English. He works in a factory where all of the employees speak Italian who refuse to learn to speak English. My dad said [censored] it, if I'm gonna live here I'm gonna learn to communicate. He started by watching Sesame Street with us, and now he is perfectly fluent (with a thick accent).

- My dad gave me a passion for reading. We didn't have a lot of money when I was a kid, so we would go to the library. It was our time together every Saturday. I still cherish those trips.

- I remember what he told me when I was seven: "Just because you come from a long line of peasants and farmers, it doesn't mean that's where your destiny lies." Most of my friends' parents were the opposite. They would encourage their kids to skip school to pick up some hours at a [censored] part time job. My dad truly wanted better for me, which is something all parents say, but very few actually act on.

- My dad is the only person in my family that thought it was a good idea for me to quit my good paying job to go back to school. His attitude has always been that an education is never a waste of time.

- Robert DeNiro did his best impression of my dad in "A Bronx Tale."

- Nothing brings my dad down. His life has been pretty [censored] (I wouldn't be able to do things he has), but he still smiles all the time. He's happy with what he has, and doesn't begrudge anyone for what they have.

I am 33 years old now, and I just recently started getting close to my dad. For years I tried so hard to be like him, but I realized that I never could, and more importantly, he doesn't want me to. He is proud of the man I've become, and the part he had to play in it.

My dad has never done anything extraordinary, he has never been in the paper, or made a lot of money. What he has done is be a good man, a good husband, and a good father.