Conservative Smokeshow of the Day

My father was raised in rural Tennessee and worked as a small-business owner for most of his adult life. He started out doing construction before eventually opening his own residential contracting company. He was the kind of man who left the house before sunrise, came home covered in dust, and still somehow found the energy to help us with homework or fix something around the house. He taught me that hard work wasn't something to complain about. It was something to take pride in, especially when you were building a life for the people you loved.

My mother was an elementary school teacher who eventually stepped away from full-time teaching to spend more time raising our family. She was the definition of a Southern lady in my eyes. She always looked put together, kept a beautiful home, remembered everybody's birthday, and somehow managed to make even an ordinary Tuesday dinner feel special. She was also incredibly strong-willed. People sometimes assume traditional women are supposed to be quiet or passive, but my mother was living proof that you could be graceful, feminine, and absolutely fearless when it came to standing up for what mattered.