My dad is amazing. It's funny, but I didn't know that until I
found out he was going to die. That it was going to happen
soon. That it was real. Then I thought about a lot of stuff.
Things I hadn't thought about for a long time. I guess I kind
of took him for granted or something. I mean, our parents are
just always there. You expect them to always be bugging you
to clean up your room or study harder or have good manners or
try new things to grow up to be a more well-rounded person one
day. And make you get up early on the weekend to have
"family time" and all that other stuff that used to drive me
crazy. I don't feel that way now. Everything's different since
Dad got his diagnosis. Since I realized that one day in the
near future, he might not be around to drive me crazy.

Now I feel lucky when he asks me about my day (I used to totally hate that
question) or nags me about coming home on time at night and being respon-
sible. One day he won't be here to ask. Now I feel lucky when I hear
his car pulling into the driveway after school. I even like to hear him cough-
ing. It means he's still around. Still my dad.

My dad is the chemistry teacher at my high school and he's annoyingly smart.
I mean, super brainiac annoying. He knows the most random stuff. Like
how at room temperature, mercury is the only metal that is in liquid form.
And water expands as it drops in temperature, and by the time it's frozen it
takes up about 9% more space. Or that if you slowly pour a handful of salt
into a totally full glass of water, it won't overflow. In fact, the water level
will go down. He's always dropping the little facts about everything. He
doesn't realize what a geek he is for doing it, he's just really into chemistry.
I think he really doesn't understand that not everybody is. He likes to cook
because of chemistry - he mostly makes breakfast - because he says chemi-
cal reactions happen all the time in cooking and he's always explaining as he
goes. I don't take his class at school but I hear he's a pretty good teacher.
He gets a lot of practice at home, that's for sure.