Perseverance What many people don’t know about surfing is that much of the time is spent in the peacefulness that is found out beyond the breaking waves. It is here that the surfer is waiting and watching; scanning the horizon for the perfect wave. I am not an expert surfer. Unlike my Dad who grew up on the shores of Huntington Beach, California, I learned to surf in the small, choppy waters off of Galveston Island, Texas. I would take waves in the face, sand in the eyes, and ingest as much salty ocean water as is humanly possible as I would practice popping up and balancing to ride a small wave straight into the beach. What stands out for me in these memories of my Dad teaching me to surf is a sense of happiness mixed with calm as we would wait for a wave, and then the scary anticipation of paddling in as hard as I could. Sometimes I could ride that wave all of the way into the beach. One of the most important lessons to learn about surfing is that it doesn’t come easy, and if you want to be successful, it requires a high degree of determination. My Dad said that there were three things to remember about surfing: 1. If you want to learn to surf it takes perseverance 2. Don’t let other surfers in the water affect your confidence 3. Enjoy the moment As I look back now on the things that my Dad taught me about surfing, it occurs to me that these were the same principles that he used in the way in which he lived his life. Whatever came his way in life he was a model of perseverance. He lived through the removal of both of his kidneys, dialysis, and later a kidney transplant, followed by detox from habitual opioid use, with a determination to live his life to the fullest. He was a role model of not comparing what was going on in his life to that of other people and worrying that he was being cheated out of something as people will sometimes do. He lived life in the moment with an awareness that it was precious. We lost my Dad this last February of 2020 following a three-year fight against aggressive Head and Neck Cancer. The hospice nurses that cared for my Dad at the end of his life told us that people often die in the same manner in which they lived. I think this must be true. My Dad persevered in ways that only a person with a true fighting spirit could. He was diagnosed with the cancer my freshman year of high school, and had many surgeries, multiple rounds of radiation, chemo, and immunotherapy treatments. He had part of his tongue removed and had to eat with a feeding tube, had most of the bones, muscle, tissue, and skin removed from the left side of his face. It was brutal. My Dad is one of the toughest people I have ever known. It was hard on our whole family. My sister was away at college so from the start, there were many days that I was late for school or missed entirely in order to help out at home. My grades were never bad, but I know that I would have done better if things had been different. His illness also caused many other stressors on my life throughout high school including financial problems and depression. When he died in February it threw me off track to graduate in time as I was severely grieving the loss of my father and trying to piece back together what my family would look like without him in it. Interestingly, the wisdom for life that my Dad had given me in our time of surfing together held up as I found the calm that only the surf and the ocean can provide. As I looked into it I found that there are actually programs and research that are being conducted on the benefits of surfing as it relates to elevating mood and serotonin levels. The void that his absence has left in my family will never be filled. Still, I am grateful for the life lessons that he left me through our shared enjoyment of surfing that I will always have with me: Life requires perseverance, don’t let others affect your confidence, and enjoy the moment.