Who’s your papsidudez?
“Who’s your daddy?” It’s that phrase you can type on the message bar of that DotA single player game so you could slay Roshan in one hit. It’s also the question that kept on bothering me in the past few years. Who is really the one I call as Papsidudez a.k.a. dad? I mean what does he do?I and my siblings don’t know what our dad does at his office. When asked he just says, “Just say I’m a government employee. It’s what I am.” So when we are also asked by our friends we don’t have a definite answer. We just kind of say, “Oh he’s a government employee who works in the airport.” Like the time when my little brother was asked of the same question and answered the same line. He got, “Oh so your dad is the one who’s driving the trolley that carries luggage from the terminal to the plane?” My little brother turned red and let his friend pass because even he cannot answer the question certainly.
Other people thought of my dad was kind of like 007 because he will just leave for travel on short notice. Others thought that he was a contract worker abroad. But for those who were with my dad for the last 20 years in public service, they have more details.
My dad asked me out to visit his office after my graveyard shift and I thought it was cool because it has been 14 years or so since the last. So I came to his office near the runway of an airport that he called “tower”. He briefly introduced me to his coworkers. Some of them could recognize me and gave that same now-you’ve-grown line. I thought it was normal. But something was different in the way they called my dad.
I found his office very cool, located at the third floor of the tower. It’s not the kind of office where there are lots of tables piled with paperwork. It’s just a room full of gigantic equipments for airway navigations, a few weather-dedicated computers and a couple of chairs. The place was freezing and we have to take off our shoes before getting inside because he said these devices are very sensitive to dirt and temperature. Good thing I wore a good pair of socks. There was this really big thing towering over me like a refrigerator, all it does is just to record all the flights that come each and every single moment so it has this big hard disk inside. There was also a device that aids the approaching plane pilot the accurate distance to land and an unusual power generator because it’s small. All of them were really branded so I asked dad if he has any idea how much these equipment cost. I got a negative answer.
Next stop was the top floor where I can have 360 degrees view angle of the whole airport. Lucky for me I was just in time to see a PAL Airbus plane getting ready for take off. Dad handed me my favorite but simple tool—the telescope. When I was 6, I find the thing very heavy that my dad has to hold the thing in front on my eyes but I managed it with one hand. The room also has equipment but mostly for monitoring the weather and there are walkie-talkies so the controller could communicate to the pilot. Pilot, he said? Maybe after this call center thing, I’ll apply to be a controller. I was shocked how airplanes now are having quiet engines. I barely new that a plane has landed or taken off in an instant unlike before in old Boeings. That is why houses were appearing like mushrooms a few meters near the runway. Dad explained that there is competition now in the market of airplanes so flights are having more fine features. Leading manufacturers from the US, McDouglas and Boeing, merged to counteract the joint European manufacturers that made Airbus 300. Maybe then someday people of the world will all have their own planes.
It was time for runway inspection and along with two of his officemates we hopped in to a pick-up truck. Dad surprised me again because he was the one to drive. I mean, I never really thought that he could drive well at all. We were speeding on the runway and I was worried if at any moment a plane would land on top of us. He just laughed and said that I shouldn’t worry too much. We visited each small fully air-conditioned rooms along the runway which I never thought of before as the little homes of very special equipment. They have to see that each is working fine every time and that each would be giving accurate signals or information. Most of them are for centering plane landing, transmitting grids and warning. Cool.
Now I understand why dad never told us his job description because it’s difficult for a person to get the picture of what he does and besides he does not like explaining a lot of things. He’s a man of action, I guess. When I looked into a bulletin board with their ranks, I found him having the title as the supervising airways navigation senior specialist. And I thought, “Yeah, I guess he’s right. Government employee is much shorter for filling up the part where they ask for my father’s job in forms.” Plus no questions asked.
We hung out in his office and have “the talk”. He just wanted me to seize all opportunities given unlike what he did before. He wished that I should have taken the degrees he did, things like that considering other things blah blah blah. What I like about him is that he doesn’t mind about women taking jobs which are for men. He really would like his children to learn how to drive even without an own car. We thought of putting out our own branch of TV station by purchasing the local RPN 9 someday. We both love the Prime Shift programs of that station as well as the lack of mass appeal, truly dedicated to the educated public. He desires to revive our favorite father-daughter hobbies, archery and target-shooting, after he could find a wider free time. He also plans to purchase a few music instruments just for fun. It’s funny how he could think of things like that when he’s at work. It comes to show that he’s still thinking of his kids most of the time and I’m glad for that.
I came to apprehend the magnitude of his work to a lot of people especially to the safety of the airplane passengers. Everyday, he has to ensure that every device is working properly so that no airway accidents would happen on his zone. Once a week he has to sleep in the office for early monitoring. He would have overtime if any of the equipment breaks down and it would take days to repair. I’m proud to say that one of the reasons why local airplanes are safe on their take off is because my dad is doing his job well.
Dad just wanted to show me how office works, how important it is to deal with different people and work as a team. Most of his group has to ask for his help but he told me to have patience and must know to impart knowledge to subordinates when that happens in my case. “Teach them how to fish not feed them.” he said. He also added that I must always make sure that there is a room for self-improvement; learning is a continuous process so just listen and understand. He didn’t have to explain much because he showed it to me which I think is a lot better. I knew he has to now that we’re in the same boat and that is what we call as work.
Love you Papsidudez the papsicool!!! ^___^
(I know I’m way too late for Father’s day but this one’s for you.)
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