I am super excited and proud to post my sister's first entry to our blog in honor of our beloved father, Tony Banner! Expressing our experiences through blog entries has been a great release for us and hopefully fun for all of you followers out there! Check out Lindsay's first of many posts to come!
It has taken far too long for me to contribute to my
brother's blog, but several reminders have occurred in the past week that have
compelled me to finally put in words one of the many lessons my dad taught me
and several others. I hope to make the
time to do this more because it is incredibly important to me to share and to
not forget, but it just seems like life just happens so fast and time is
constantly escaping me. My mom always
has reminded me to take time and smell the roses because I'm always operating
at 90 mph (literally for those of you who know my driving), but at the same
time my dad always preached "live in the moment and live each to the
fullest because you never know when it's going to be your time." Ironic, right? But maybe that is why from the
moment my dad joined the Big Man above, I have been at peace with it. He lived
each and every day to the fullest, yet never forgot to take time and smell the
roses enjoying what he was doing while living in that moment rather than
looking onto the next item on the agenda.
And he had a way of making every person involved in that moment with him
feel like they were the center of his world.
The fire for me to write this was first ignited last weekend
when I received a call from Miss Ashley Grimm, one of my nearest and
dearest. I was driving about an hour and
a half north to my cousin and his wife's baby shower on Saturday morning and
she called to check in. She's done with
her master's, working on her PhD while being employed full-time, and just knows
the right things to say sometimes as I work through my master's. Ashley realizes that I have been incredibly
stressed lately and letting outside factors control my stress level rather than
me controlling them like I typically do.
After we went through our run down of life, she finishes the call with
the recommendation to "live in the moment." I hadn't hear that lately because I didn't
have dad to remind me, not that I should need to be reminded for as much as he
ingrained it in me; however, lately it seems I have been going through the
motions and thinking about what needs to be done next rather than just being.
Regardless, it let my mind wonder the rest of the ride.
After the baby shower, I was talking with one of my cousin's
friends, Brian Osberg. For my dad's 50th birthday, I took him to see Bruce
Springsteen. As Andrew has mentioned, as
a family we have always connected with sports, but aside from that my dad and I
always connected in music. What can I say we love the romantic side of sports
and music, people achieving their dreams and the fascination with that path and
lifestyle. Ever seen Almost Famous? If you haven't, you should. It was incredible enough that I got to spend
the evening pregaming, yes pregaming, with my dad because he was with twenty
something year olds - Brian Osberg, Jake Jones, and myself - and therefore,
needed to live in the moment, which meant never being afraid to join in the
festivities due to age. We made our way through the South Side bars and hiked
across I-376, onto the Duquesne Campus and arrived at the ground floor of the
Civic Arena no more than 50 yards from the Boss's stage. It was awesome! Ever
trying dancing like no one is watching and singing at the top of your lungs?
Again, if you haven't, you're missing out. Near the end of the concert, as
Brian recently reminded me, someone got word that Bruce was going to be at
Moondogs Pub in Blawnox. Now I don't know if any of you have heard about this
bar, but you shouldn't have. It's a mere hole in the wall. But dad was not going to miss the opportunity
to meet, drink, and sing with THE BOSS, regardless of the fact that he had to
get up at 4:00 am like he always did to work.
So naturally we went, drank, and sang to the jukebox. Can you believe Bruce AND Clarence stood us
up? This is Tony Banner we are talking about, THE Tony Banner.
In hindsight, dad knew that the Boss wasn't going to show
up. But it was the romantic in him that I mentioned before, the story that
could possible ensue, if perhaps, it did come true, but most importantly it was
him living in the moment with his daughter teaching her to do the same. As Brian and I rehashed that evening
following the shower, it took all I could from not breaking down (shocker). But
hours after Ashley had reminded me to do so, Brian reminded me of an instance
of my dad doing just that.
So this past week, I tested it out again like was I living
life pre-grad school. I lived in each and every moment the week presented me. I
got a whole heck of a lot less sleep, but it wasn't from cramming and busting
my butt to balance school and work, but bonding with my classmates, enjoying my
coworkers, and laughing my way through the week. After four months, it was a
reminder to me that grad school doesn't require me to change my lifestyle, but
rather how I approach grad school. Until recently, that live in the moment
maxim hadn't been challenged, but in a way I'm glad it was because it reminded
that you need to smell those roses.
