my parents taught me the value of hard work, especially my dad. from a young age, my siblings and i were woken by my dad around five am to deliver newspapers. we had about seven neighborhood routes, which resulted in about three hours of work for roughly five people every single day. we didn't get weekends off, no, instead, weekends were harder than ever because the sunday and sometimes saturday paper was triple the size of the weekday paper; more wrapping, folding, bagging, and heavier deliveries. it didn't matter if it was snowing outside, he didn't let us fall behind schedule. essentially, my dad successfully ran a small newspaper business, working with children and teenagers as his employees and dishing out a hundred percent of the profits to the staff.

through the years my parent's financial stability has fluctuated, as most do. in past years, they had more money than they do now. at one point of greater wealth, they took the opportunity to reserve vacation time shares in a handful of cities around the world. this summer they came upon two resort suites in park city they had booked years ago. each suite slept six and they had the rooms booked for a whole week. they invited my seven siblings and spouses and i up for any portion of the week that we liked.

the bed was king-sized, the bathroom had enough room to sit forward facing on the toilet, the bathtub was free of creeping black lines, a bowl of pricey chocolates sat on the kitchen counter asking to be eaten, and the pool was crisply cool in the july heat. after spending the weekend in the five star, central air-conditioned, fridges fully stocked, multi-hot tub resort for the fourth of july weekend, jared and i headed back home to be ready for work the next day. interestingly, while we were there, i came down with a mild case of feeling useless, empty, and uncomfortable as we lounged on the giant memory-foam mattress eating unlimited amounts of smoked gouda and fresh snap peas. i was restless in the abundant undeserving circumstances, the plethora of unearned goods bred the beginning baby feelings of depression and anxiety.

to save money, we left the window AC units off in our top-story apartment while we were gone. when we walked in the door, the apartment was exactly three degrees hotter inside than it was outside, a whopping 108°F. we flipped the AC units on, blasted the freestanding fan, stripped down to our underwear, and poured a few glasses of ice water. for dinner, instead of multiple choices of high quality meats and cheeses to choose from our fridge, we had the options of canned chili or tuna fish. that night, we crawled into our full-sized bed with packs of frozen peas melting onto our foreheads and cooling our toes. in the dark, we laid talking about how we were going to pay our phone bill..and auto insurance..and the power bill. i noticed the knot in my stomache was still there, but it was a happy knot. it was a nervous, excited, fulfilled, healthy, important knot. it was my reward for the responsibility i was shouldering.

the comforts we experienced in park city were not inherently bad. but the fulfillment of hard work is robbed when the reward is just handed over; more than that, the reward turns sour, and breeds weakness. i have to thank my dad for teaching me the value of hard work and what it means to be strong.

as a sidenote, i just have to add that jared's take on the weekend has a much different spin. he's still talking about that king-sized bed, and really, i can't say i blame him.