Penn State senior Paul Roman has some choice words about his father.
“He’s an [expletive], but he’s also my hero,” Roman says, aware of how strange that contradiction sounds. “I owe everything to him.”
Roman says he and his father, a lawyer by trade, have a contentious relationship that’s filled with arguments and disagreements. But despite their frequent fights, Roman is quick to stress just how much he loves and respects his dad.
Roman remembers his father telling him that his first thought will often be wrong. Because of that advice, Roman says he’s made many positive life choices because he’s taken the time to put thought into his decisions.
Five years ago, Roman says, his father began to struggle with alcoholism. Much of the success he had built in his career began to slip through his fingers as his dependency worsened – but Roman says his father was never the kind of man to shrink away from a challenge.
Roman says his father fought the good fight and overcame his alcoholism, which only deepened the respect that Roman felt for him.
“He’s been sober for five years now,” Roman says. “And on that day, I called him to tell him how proud I was of him.”
Unlike Roman, State College visitor Liz Weiner says she never fought with her father.
“My dad is honestly like my best friend,” Weiner says. “It’s a very unique relationship.”
Weiner says that, as she’s grown into young adulthood, she’s come to “respect my father as a person, not just as a parent,” giving her a new appreciation for all he’s done for her.
Weiner’s father was a doctor, which she says was a major factor in her decision to go into medical school. But she also says her father never pressured her into following in his footsteps – which is something she always appreciated growing up.
“Maybe the biggest thing he taught me is to strive to get to know myself,” Weiner says. “He provided me with the moral compass, and then let me be true to myself.”
Similarly, State College resident Katie Folsom says her relationship with her father is largely free of conflict.
Looking back, Folsom says she used to get upset as a child because she believed her father was a strict disciplinarian. Now she says she realizes her father was just doing what fathers do.
“We had a lot of rules in the house, but it was nothing unreasonable,” Folsom says. “But as a kid, you always think that every rule is unreasonable.”
Folsom says her father’s rules helped give her a sense of direction and a respect for other people. Thanks in large part to her upbringing, she tries to be polite to everyone she comes across and find the value in everyone’s point of view.
Though she’s not quite ready to be a parent just yet, Folsom says she knows she has a well of wisdom to draw on from her father.
“I think everything he did will affect the way I raise my kids,” Folsom says. “The way you grow up is what you know, and I want to parent the way I was parented.”
POPULAR STORIES:
State College Man Arrested for Campus Parking Lot Assault
Penn State Basketball: Nittany Lions Headed To Vegas For Early Season Tournament
Emergency Crews Respond After Blasting Caps Discovered on College Township Property
Youngster Inspires Spikes Players Through Tenacious Battle With Illness
Q&A With ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit, Part 2
Spikes Baseball: State College Set To Defend Championship As 2015 Season Opens
Grine Attempts to Remove Harrisburg Firm From Lawsuit
Vintage Vehicles Motor In For Bellefonte Cruise
Centre County Placed on Drought Watch, But Rain is on the Way
