Family

I was going to write a blog about leadership and communication.  Actually, I was writing it, but it felt a little forced because all I could think about was something else, Family.  So here it goes.  I’ve always had a pretty tight family.  My Dad is the oldest of four and my Mom is the 9^th of 11!  On my Mom’s side alone I think there are 35 grand-kids.  That’s not to mention all of the kids the grandkids are having.  The Colligan side of the family tree is sprouting every year. 

One of my favorite and only great memories of high school was when my brother Chris became a freshman.  I was a senior, Tommy was a sophomore and Chris now joined the ranks.  Patrick was in 2^nd grade so he had a ways to go, but he was always great for getting girls to talk to us, haha.  When all three of the older brothers were in high school I had a huge sense of pride.  It was a little false, because it’s not like we ruled the school or anything (I’m thinking of the O’Doyles here), but we were known.  Tommy was an awesome football player, Chris was a freshman standout on the varsity soccer team, and I was their older brother.  Win – Win for me.  I actually could take a little bit of credit for their success.  Not that I deserved it, but I did take it, haha. 

I know it’s arrogant and conceited and whatever other word you can use, but I love seeing the name Sopko in the newspaper or in an article.  I actually don’t like seeing when it says Jimmy (or James) in front of it, but I love reading about my brothers.  When I was at Gunnery and then Navy Tommy and Chris lit up the papers.  Then, when I was in the Navy Patrick came onto the scene.  The kid was kicking ass in everything.  It started with soccer, but by the time he was a senior he was winning regionals in cross country.  My Mom and Dad also make the paper every once in a while for a high school activity with Mom or a local seafood article with Dad.

Mom, a saint of a woman, worked her ass of dealing with us.  I kid you not, that poor woman put more miles on herself and her car driving four boys to more sport practices and emergency room visits than one would want to handle alone.  Tommy, Chris, Pat and I were usually well behaved, but we had a tendency to be a handful once in a while (this might be an understatement).  When I was in high school my Mom had breast cancer.  At the time I didn’t really comprehend what that meant.  It was a few years prior to the “Save the ta-ta’s”/pink movement and I was a selfish teenager that had more important things to think about.  Basically, I was too worried about myself to realize what was going on.  I don’t think she missed a single practice or game for any one of us.  She was getting chemo!  How tough do you have to be to be able to deal with all of that?  Every time someone mentions the word tough a picture of my Mom shows up in my head.

My Dad owns a seafood company, Seafarms Inc.  He’s owned and operated it for about 26 years and it has become a pretty successful small business, not because the seafood industry is lighting things up right now, but because he worked his ass off.  He adapted when a certain product would be in short supply by expanding his business and started to work with another product.  When he started, clams were the main source of business.  Now he works with clams, fish, oysters, crabs, scallops, pretty much all seafood dealt around the Chesapeake Bay.  He was never a “let’s go throw the ball in the yard” Dad.  Most of my time with him was spent helping in the yard or helping over at Seafarms.  When I was a teenager I hated it!  I hated getting up early and going over to work just to come back hours later smelling like seafood and peeling fish scales off of me throughout the evening.  I actually quit, haha!  One day, when I was 16 he and I got in to it and I told him I quit.  I went and got another job and moved on.  He never once made me feel bad about it.  He treated me like a man and let me move on, realizing it was the best for both of us.  Our relationship only grew stronger from that point on and now we are truly friends.  I would not trade the way my Dad raised me for anything.  I learned TONS of stuff and will probably repeat many of the things he did with my...  daughters (yes, I’ve given in to the fact that I will probably have girls).

This is not even the beginning of what I could write about my family.  Shaunnah, alone could take up months and months of blogs.  However, I think she would kill me if I blogged about her.  She hates when I brag and that’s all I really can do because she’s a stud.  One day I might write about the time we went to a shooting range with 3 Olympic Gold medalists and she outshot EVERYONE with a 45 caliber revolver (her grouping was about 2 inches in diameter)  More will come about her later on in the year when we find out where we’re going to live next after she’s done being the Superintendent’s Aide.  I am constantly surrounded by people who I look up to and am fortunate for that.  The other positive is that I have the same DNA as them (except Shaunnah’s side of the family) so hopefully I’ll get some of it too. 

Have a good one.

- Jimmy