S. Scott Payne

Hero

I realized what person in my life to write about being my hero after thinking about who affects or provides for my family most. I figured out that I had to write about either my mom or my dad. My mom is obviously a huge provider for my little brother Cody and I as well as my dad. She cooks, cleans, does the bills, helps us with homework, writes our checks for school, and basically takes care of Cody and me completely. She is there for us when we need her and willing to try and help even if she doesn’t completely understand our problems. But then again she wouldn’t be able to buy the food to cook, buy the dishes to clean, pay for our bills, pay for school tuition and things that we need while at school, or any of all the other stuff she does without my dad there to make the money and provide for us. So after some debate I decided to write about my dad after all.

My dad grew up on a farm in the small town of Holbrook, Arizona. He is the oldest child in a family of four children. He worked hard on the farm and in school. He achieved the Eagle award in the boy scouts when he was only thirteen years old. He and his family moved from Holbrook when he was about fifteen to a town in Utah called Pleasant Grove. He attended Pleasant Grove High School where he received his diploma along with a semester scholarship at a local college for agricultural mechanics. Midway through his free ride his parents fell out of love and decided that a divorce would be appropriate at that time. At that point my dad had to drop out of school so that he could help his mom provide for the rest of the family. He got a job at a local tire shop where he worked as a tire technician. He made barely over minimum wage and worked as often as he could. His family scraped by and made it through everything. He later met my mom and they got married when he was nineteen. In 1990 I was born. At that time we lived in a basement apartment in southern Orem, Utah. My dad was getting connections at the tire shop and he was soon partners with his former boss when they bought a tire store in the franchise company called “Big O Tires” the year was 1993. He was able to buy a house shortly after that in northern Orem, and in 1994 my little brother was born.

Now it’s almost twelve years later and my dad still owns part of that same store along with another that he bought into along with two other men about three years ago. He still goes to work everyday at seven o’clock in the morning even though he really doesn’t even need to be there technically. We moved again two years ago now, into a much bigger house in the much smaller town of Lindon, Utah.

Since my brother and I are older now he expects more from us. We have our job’s helping around the house and we do them. I also work during the summer at one of his tire stores and don‘t think that just because I‘m the boss‘s son I am getting special treatment. He expects more out of me than he does even his best employees, and I meet his standards. Cody and I both get grades almost identical to the ones that he got when he was our age. And we are both planning on going to college, my dad expects us to go to college.

I could say that my dad expects allot from my brother and I and it would be mostly true. He does, but knowing his history and how far he has come from where he was, I understand why he expects so much. He has provided us with everything we need to make the most of ourselves and more. We are spoiled in my opinion, not everybody has the same opportunities as Cody and I do, but these opportunities won’t go unused I can personally guarantee that.

My dad brings home pay check after paycheck just to watch it almost disappear after his hard earned money pay’s for all the things that we need. He buy’s nothing for himself unless everything that we need is bought. He takes us on vacations and trips when he can and one of my families most favorite past-times is to go hunting, so when hunting season rolls around we go out almost every weekend.

My dad is my hero because I think that his acts of selflessness, honest hard work, and courage are second to none. He has spent his whole life working his hardest to get where he is and he continues to work just as hard as he did when he was starting out. His drive to go after something when it seems out of reach is very honorable and courageous. Any thing is possible for him and in his opinion his kid’s, and he is willing to go out of his way to do whatever he can to help us achieve our goals. For all of the things he does for us and all the things he is willing to do for us in the future I would like to thank him.