Happy Birthday, Dad

September and October are very big months for my family, as 80% of our birthdays happen during these two months. When I did a draft of my editorial calendar for the blogs I would write (which, by the way, has not really gone as planned due to my muse going in different directions daily), I automatically put my mom and dad's birthdays down for their corresponding days. Although tributes to parents are not typical LinkedIn content (at least not on my feed), I feel strongly about having the opportunity to let our loved ones know just how deeply we care for them whenever possible.

As I shared in my #OneBlogADayInOctober entry about how I fell in love with writing , I attribute much of my relationship with written content to my dad. The way he communicated in both business and personal settings inspired me to learn from him, and that drive to just learn how to write and communicate well ended up becoming my career.

A tumultuous start

My dad had a very difficult childhood. The Suez canal conflict in 1957 led to his family being kicked out of Egypt when he and his twin were just three years old. My grandparents lost all they had worked towards in the life they built there, and left to France with their three children to stay with my grandmother's relatives. About a year later, my grandfather repeatedly heard about Venezuela's booming economy and how welcoming they were to immigrants, and so they uprooted and left again to start anew in South America. My dad had lived in three continents by the time he was five years old.

My grandmother was a stay-at-home-mom as was customary at the time, while my grandfather was a very savvy businessman who spoke five languages, all of which enabled him to be the sole breadwinner. A French household living among Latinos in Venezuela, my grandparents decided to send their kids to an American school so they could quickly master English. Everything was going well, until April 1st 1967, when my grandfather suffered a fatal heart attack and passed away when my dad was just 13 years old.

My grandparents had saved up enough money by then with which my grandmother was able to finish putting my dad and uncles through high school, and then it would become their turn to join the workforce and make their own way in life.

All three boys were brilliant, and they excelled in mathematics and computer sciences, the latter being a booming field to go into. The eldest is fully a genius and is still teaching IT classes to this day. My dad's twin was unfortunately very sick all of his life, until he passed on December 28th, 2014. My dad has always said it's ironic that my grandfather passed away on April Fool's day, and my uncle passed away on the Latin equivalent which is "Innocent's Day."

The next generation of Capelutos

While my uncles made the conscious decision to not have children, my dad has five kids. Four of us were born within 3 years of each other (1980, 1983, 1986, 1989), and then my little brother broke the pattern and was born five years after me. In 1989 before I was born, the business my dad had started with my mom went into bankruptcy.

Despite every hurdle, my parents fought through the hardships and built a successful business that is still running. Thanks to that business flourishing, when things got complicated in Venezuela in the early 2000s we were able to move to the U.S. to pursue the "American Dream," and all five of us completed college careers stateside.

Thank you, papá

Although no family is perfect and we've had our share of difficulties and therapy sessions, I am really grateful that I have a such a good relationship with my dad. We have a lot in common, and whenever I have felt lost or have had to face difficult challenges I have always been able to count on him for that zero-judgment, unconditional support that is so hard to come by. Despite the fact that he is a brilliant man who graduated Summa Cum Laude and was notorious for being a better tutor or substitute teacher than most of his professors, he never pushed me in any direction academically.

His life motto has always been to "do whatever makes you happy as long as you're not hurting others," and he constantly brings it up whenever I seek his advice. He always answers my calls no matter the time, even while I lived in London and we had a significant time difference. He provides me a sense of calm and peace that I am so grateful to count on when my brain and heart are going wild. He has supported all of my love interests, my obsessions (including K-Pop , of course), and most every decision I've made -- big or small.

I have wished him a happy birthday today through text, phone call, in person, and now even through a blog on LinkedIn, because he deserves it. Happy birthday, dad. I love you, and thank you for everything (even though the word everything doesn't begin to cover it).